Augustine of Hippo, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel according to St. John

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Augustine of Hippo, Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel according to St. John

Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel according to St. John.

2. For this John, dearly beloved brethren, was one of those mountains concerning which it is written: “Let the mountains receive peace for thy people,

3. For there are other mountains which cause shipwreck, on which, if any one drive his ship, she is dashed to pieces. For it is easy, when land is see

4. But those who received peace to proclaim it to the people have made Wisdom herself an object of contemplation, so far as human hearts could lay hol

5. Accordingly, brethren, of these mountains was John also, who said, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

6. Consider, then, brethren, if perchance John is not one of those mountains concerning whom we sang a little while ago, “I have lifted up mine eyes t

7. Therefore, brethren, may this be the result of my admonition, that you understand that in raising your hearts to the Scriptures (when the gospel wa

8. But let us see what advantage it is that these words have sounded, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

9. Turn thy attention to that word. Thou canst have a word in thy heart, as it were a design born in thy mind, so that thy mind brings forth the desig

10. Perhaps some one now answers me, “Who so conceives this Word?” Do not then imagine, as it were, some paltry thing when thou hearest “the Word,” no

11. Now some unbelieving Arian may come forth and say that “the Word of God was made.” How can it be that the Word of God was made, when God by the Wo

12. Do not then believe that that was made by which were made all things, lest thou be not new-made by the Word, which makes all things new. For alrea

13. Give good heed to what follows, brethren, “All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made,” so as not to imagine that “nothing” is

14. Therefore, let no one deceive you, when perchance you suffer annoyance from flies. For some have been mocked by the devil, and taken with flies. A

15. What then, brethren? why have I said these things? Shut the ears of your hearts against the wiles of the enemy. Understand that God made all thing

16. “All things,” then, brethren, “all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made.” But how were all things made by Him? “That, which w

17. As far as I can, I shall explain my meaning to you, beloved. A carpenter makes a box. First he has the box in design for if he had it not in desi

18. For this follows: “and the life was the light of men ” and from this very life are men illuminated. Cattle are not illuminated, because cattle hav

19. But perhaps the slow hearts of some of you cannot yet receive that light, because they are burdened by their sins, so that they cannot see. Let th

2. It goes on, “There was a man sent from God whose name was John.” Truly, brethren beloved, those things which were said before, were said regarding

3. Therefore, my brethren, I would desire to have impressed this upon your hearts: if you wish to live in a pious and Christian manner, cling to Chris

4. But truly there have been some philosophers of this world who have sought for the Creator by means of the creature for He can be found by means of

5. Therefore, because He was so man, that the God lay hid in Him, there was sent before Him a great man, by whose testimony He might be found to be mo

6. Wherefore then did he come? “But that he might bear witness concerning the light.” Why so? “That all might believe through him.” And concerning wha

7. But where is that light? “He was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” If every man that cometh, then also John. Th

8. What then? If He came hither, where was He? “He was in this world.” He was both here and came hither He was here according to His divinity, and He

9. Therefore He showed that for the sake of men He desired to have Himself revealed by a lamp to the faith of those who believed, that by means of the

10. “He was in the world, and the world was made by Him.” Think not that He was in the world as the earth is in the world, as the sky is in the world,

11. What meaneth “the world was made by Him”? The heaven, the earth, the sea, and all things which are therein, are called the world. Again, in anothe

12. “He came unto His own,”—because all these things were made by Him,—“and His own received Him not.” Who are they? The men whom He made. The Jews wh

13. But John adds: “As many as received Him.” What did He afford to them? Great benevolence! Great mercy! He was born the only Son of God, and was unw

14. And how are they born? Because they become sons of God and brethren of Christ, they are certainly born. For if they are not born, how can they be

15. These, then, “were born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” But that men might be born of God, God was first born o

16. But because “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” by His very nativity he made an eye-salve to cleanse the eyes of our heart, and to enab

2. I do not think that I need spend much time in endeavoring to persuade you that we are Christian men and if Christians, by virtue of the name, belo

3. Who is the Physician? Our Lord Jesus Christ. Who is our Lord Jesus Christ? He who was seen even by those by whom He was crucified. He who was seize

4. Is it, however, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself—His whole self—who was seen, and held, and crucified? Is the whole very self that? It is the same, bu

5. Where was it? Was it here? was it with the Father, and was it not here? or, what is more true, was it both with the Father and here also? If then i

6. “He came unto His own ” that is to say, He came to that which belonged to Himself “and His own received Him not.” What, then, is the hope, unless

7. “John beareth witness of Him, and crieth, saying, This was He of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is made before me.” He came after me, and He

8. Therefore this follows: “And of His fullness have all we received.” What have ye received? “And grace for grace.” For so run the words of the Gospe

9. What, then, is “grace for grace”? By faith we render God favorable to us and inasmuch as we were not worthy to have our sins forgiven, and because

10. Listen to the Apostle Paul acknowledging grace, and afterwards desiring the payment of a debt. What acknowledgment of grace is there in Paul? “Who

11. “For the law was given by Moses ” which law held the guilty. For what saith the apostle? “The law entered that the offense might abound.” It was a

12. If, then, there is one wanting to fulfill, whence does he not fulfill? Because born with the heritage of sin and death. Born of Adam, he drew with

13. Death was the punishment of sins in the Lord was the gift of mercy, not the punishment of sin. For the Lord had nothing on account of which He sh

14. This grace was not in the Old Testament, because the law threatened, did not bring aid commanded, did not heal made manifest, but did not take a

15. I speak, my brethren, regarding the humility of Christ. Who can speak regarding the majesty of Christ, and the divinity of Christ? In explaining a

16. “The law was given by Moses: grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.” By a servant was the law given, and made men guilty: by an Emperor was pardon

17. And lest, perhaps, any one should say, And did not grace and truth come through Moses, who saw God, immediately he adds, “No one hath seen God at

18. But know this, that all those things which were seen in bodily form were not that substance of God. For we saw those things with the eyes of the f

19. Expel, therefore, from your hearts carnal thoughts, that you may be really under grace, that you may belong to the New Testament. Therefore is lif

20. The same things are commanded in the Decalogue as we are commanded to observe but the same promises are not made as to us. What is promised to us

21. My brethren, wherefore do you cry out, wherefore do you exult, wherefore do you love, unless that a spark of this love is there? What do you desir

2. But will not He who at first came con cealed, because humble, come again manifested, because exalted? You have just listened to the Psalm: “God sha

3. Yet because He appeared as it were in the night, in a mortal body, He lighted for Himself a lamp by which He might be seen. That lamp was John, con

4. “And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias?” For they knew that Elias was to precede Christ. For to no Jew was the name of Christ unknown. They

5. They saw Him then lowly, and did not know Him. He was pointed out to them by a lamp. For in the first place he, than whom no greater had arisen of

6. For mark, beloved brethren, how true it is what I say. When John was conceived, or rather when he was born, the Holy Spirit prophesied that this wo

7. “And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he said, No. And they said unto him, Art thou a prophet? and he answered, No! They said therefo

8. “And they which were sent were of the Pharisees,” that is, of the chief men among the Jews “and they asked him and said unto him, Why baptizest th

9. “Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not the Christ, nor Elias, nor a prophet? John answered them, saying, I baptize with water but there standeth

10. “These things were done in Bethany, beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John saw Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the La

11. You know that certain men say sometimes, We take away sin from men, we who are holy for if he be not holy who baptizeth, how taketh he away the s

12. “And I knew Him not,” he said “but that He might be made manifest to Israel, therefore came I baptizing with water. And John bare record, saying,

13. And was it needful for the Lord to be baptized? I instantly reply to any one who asks this question: Was it needful for the Lord to be born? Was i

14. But that you may know, my brethren, that not from a necessity of any chain of sin did the Lord come to this John, as the other evangelists say whe

15. But did he know Christ, or did he not know Him? If he did not know Him, wherefore did He say, when Christ came to the river, “I have need to be ba

16. My brethren, this question if solved today would oppress you, I do not doubt, for already have I spoken many words. But know that the question is

2. Did John hear this that he might know Him whom he had not known, or that he might more fully know Him whom he had already known? For if he had been

3. Why was John sent baptizing? Already, I recollect, I have explained that to you, beloved, according to my ability. For if the baptism of John was n

4. Give heed to this, exercise your discrimination, and know it, beloved. The baptism which John received is called the baptism of John: alone he rece

5. For this purpose therefore did He receive baptism from John, in order that, receiving what was inferior from an inferior, He might exhort inferiors

6. Since, then, John had accepted a baptism which may be properly called the baptism of John, but the Lord Jesus Christ would not give His baptism to

7. But the Lord Jesus Christ could, if He wished, have given power to one of His servants to give a baptism of his own, as it were, in His stead, and

8. But this John did not know in the Lord. That He was the Lord he knew, and that he ought to be baptized by Him he knew and he confessed that He was

9. Already, then, John knew this, and he knew the Lord. What then did the dove teach? What did He desire to teach by means of the dove—that is, by mea

10. This, then, my brethren, John learned. What John learned by means of the dove let us also learn. For the dove did not teach John without teaching

11. John learns to know Him whom he knew but he learns in Him with regard to what he did not know with regard to what he did know, he does not learn

12. Wherefore, my brethren, by the simplicity of the dove did John learn that “This is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost,” unless to show that th

13. What, then, dost thou wish to take away? What displeases thee in the man whom thou wishest to rebaptize? Thou art not able to give what he already

14. Tell me certainly, that thou mayest be confounded by that lamp by which also were the former enemies confounded, who were like to thee, the Pharis

15. As yet, in the darkness of this life, we walk by the lamp of faith: let us hold also to the lamp John, and let us confound by him the enemies of C

16. What, however, are they accustomed to say against us? “Behold, after John, baptism was given.” For before that question was properly treated in th

17. I go back to John, and say, “This is he which baptizeth.” For John is better than a heretic, just as John is better than a drunkard, as John is be

18. But I say to thee thyself, whoever thou art, Art thou better than John? Thou wilt not venture to say: I am better than John. Then let thine own ba

19. But, my brethren, it is madness to say that—I will not say Judas—but that any man was better than he of whom it was said, that “Among those that a

20. I do not reject John, but rather I believe John. In what do I believe John? In that which he learned through the dove? What did he learn through t

2. Now if the dove’s note is a moaning, as we all know it to be, and doves moan in love, hear what the apostle says, and wonder not that the Holy Ghos

3. Therefore, when He sent the Holy Spirit He manifested Him visibly in two ways—by a dove and by fire: by a dove upon the Lord when He was baptized,

4. Hence in this manner it behoved the Holy Spirit to be manifested when coming upon the Lord, that every one might understand that if he has the Holy

5. For why, my brethren? Who does not see what they do not? And no wonder for they who are unwilling to return from that are just like the raven that

6. Now this it was in Him that John saw, and came to know which he did not know. Not that he did not know Him to be the Son of God, or that he did not

7. Mark, brethren before our Lord Jesus Christ came to His baptism (for it was after the baptism that the dove descended, whereby John recognized som

8. For if the sanctity of baptism be according to the diversity of merits in them that administer it, then as merits are diverse there will be diverse

9. Therefore, beloved, let us see what those men desire not to see not what they may not see, but what they grieve to see, as though it were shut aga

10. But lo, say the disciples to the Lord, we are told in what name we are to baptize Thou hast made us ministers, and hast said to us, “Go, baptize

11. But perhaps they will say: Well, as it is a dove, and the dove is one, baptism there cannot be apart from the one dove. Therefore if the dove is w

12. I also will put questions let us meanwhile lay aside the inquiry as to whom this was said, “My dove is one, the only one of her mother ”—as yet w

13. Consider, beloved, why also was there a something pointed out by means of the dove, as that the dove—namely, the Holy Spirit in the shape of a dov

14. The dove teaches us. From the head of the Lord she answers, and says, Thou hast baptism, but the charity with which I groan thou hast not. How is

15. For not only was baptism not profitable to thee, and not also hurtful. Even holy things may be hurtful. In the good, indeed, holy things are to sa

16. But thou art anxious, it may be, and sayest, I was baptized without I fear lest therefore I am guilty, in that I was baptized without. Already th

17. Boast not of thy baptism because I call it a real baptism. Behold, I say that it is so the whole Catholic Church says that it is so the dove reg

18. For what thou hast, even Simon Magus had: the Acts of the Apostles are witness, that canonical book which has to be read in the Church every year.

19. Neither say, I will not come, because I was baptized without. So, begin to have charity, begin to have fruit, let there be fruit found in thee, an

20. Moreover, as to this fruit of the olive, if the matter be examined, you will find what it was. The fruit of the olive signifies charity. How do we

21. But I have the sacrament, thou wilt say. Thou sayest the truth the sacrament is divine thou hast baptism, and that I confess. But what says the

22. But sayest thou, “Why do you seek us if we are bad men?” That you may be good. The reason why we seek you is, because you are bad for if you were

23. But what sayest thou? “Behold, we suffer many evils.” Would that ye suffered these for Christ, not for your own honor! Hear what follows: They, in

24. You see then, my brethren, that all things cry against them, all the divine pages, all prophecy, the whole gospel, all the apostolic letters, ever

25. Failing everywhere else, what do they now allege against us, not finding what to say? They have taken away our houses, they have taken away our es

26. But what have we to do with the emperor? But I have already said that we are treating of human right. And yet the apostle would have us obey kings

2. Wherefore, beloved, let it belong to our neediness and poverty to grieve for those who seem to themselves to abound. For their joy is as that of ma

3. But I imagine, beloved brethren, that you remember that this Gospel is read in order in suitable portions and I think that it has not escaped you

4. John bare record because he saw. What record did he bear? “That this is the Son of God.” It behoved, then, that He should baptize who is God’s only

5. “The next day, John stood, and two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus as He walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!” Assuredly, in a specia

6. My brethren, if we acknowledge our price, that it is the blood of the Lamb, who are they who this day celebrate the festival of the blood of I know

7. Do not, then, seek Christ elsewhere than where Christ wished Himself to be preached to you and as He wished Himself to be preached to you, in that

8. “John stood, and two of his disciples.” Behold two of John’s disciples: since John, the friend of the Bridegroom, was such as he was, he sought not

9. Let us see what follows: “Behold the Lamb of God.” This John said, and the two disciples heard him speak, and followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and

10. “What seek ye?” They said unto Him, “Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where dwellest Thou? He says to them, Come and see. And t

11. For those who have a cause, and wish to supplicate the emperor, seek for some one skilled in the law, and trained in the schools, to compose their

12. What, then, wilt thou do? Tell me. To fulfill the law in every part, so as to offend in nothing, is difficult: the condition of guilt is therefore

13. We have declared, then, why it was at the tenth hour. Let us see what follows: “One of the two which heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andre

14. “And he brought him to Jesus and when Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art Simon the son of Joannes: thou shall be called Cephas, which is, by int

15. “And the day following He would go forth into Galilee, and finding Philip, He saith unto him, Follow me. Now he was of the city of Andrew and Pete

16. What sort of a man this Nathanael was, we prove by the words which follow. Hear what sort of a man he was the Lord Himself bears testimony. Great

17. What do we then, brethren? Ought this man to be the first among the apostles? Not only is Nathanael not found as first among the apostles, but he

18. Let us now see the rest concerning this man. “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.” What is “in whom is no guile?” Perhaps he had no s

19. Wherefore, when the Pharisees, who seemed righteous to themselves, blamed the Lord, because, as physician, he mixed with the sick, and when they s

20. Jesus then saw this man in whom was no guile, and said, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.” Nathanael saith unto Him, “Whence knowe

21. We must inquire whether this fig-tree signifies anything. Listen, my brethren. We find the fig-tree cursed because it had leaves only, and not fru

22. When, then, Nathanael had said “Whence knowest Thou me?” the Lord said to him, “Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree,

23. Already on a former occasion I have spoken of these ascending and descending angels but lest you should have forgotten, I shall speak of the latt

24. And if we have detained you somewhat longer than is our wont, the design was that the dangerous hours might pass: we imagine that those people hav

2. And these things indeed we see they lie before our eyes. But what of those we do not see, as angels, virtues, powers, dominions, and every inhabit

3. When we see, therefore, such deeds wrought by Jesus God, why should we wonder at water being turned into wine by the man Jesus? For He was not made

4. The Lord, on being invited, came to the marriage. What wonder if He came to that house to a marriage, having come into this world to a marriage? Fo

5. It is because of an indubitable mystery that He appears not to acknowledge His mother, from whom as the Bridegroom He came forth, when He says to h

6. What, then, is this, saith one, which the Lord saith, “Woman, what have I to do with thee?” Perhaps the Lord shows us in the sequel why He said thi

7. I ask you, O faithful Christians, Was the mother of Jesus there? Answer ye, She was. Whence know you? Answer, The Gospel says it. What answer made

8. Now then, if it seem good, brethren, those men being repulsed, and ever wandering in their own blindness, unless in humility they be healed, let us

9. Why, then, said the Son to the mother, “Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come?” Our Lord Jesus Christ was both God and man.

10. In my opinion, brethren, we have answered the heretics. Let us now answer the astrologers. And how do they attempt to prove that Jesus was under f

11. Nevertheless, being deceived, they deceive others, and propound fallacies to men. They lay snares to catch men, and that, too, in the open streets

12. Why then did He say, “Mine hour is not yet come?” Rather because, having it in His power when to die, He did not yet see it fit to use that power.

13. What then, brethren? Because we have replied to these and those, shall we say nothing as to what the water-pots signify? what the water turned int

2. The Lord, in that He came to the marriage to which He was invited, wished, apart from the mystical signification, to assure us that marriage was Hi

3. For now let us begin to uncover the hidden meanings of the mysteries, so far as He in whose name we made you the promise may enable us. In the anci

4. Wherefore, prophecy from ancient times, even from the time when the series of human births began to run onwards, was not silent concerning Christ

5. When these words of the Gospel are understood, and they are certainly clear, all the mysteries which are latent in this miracle of the Lord will be

6. But observe what Himself saith, “The things which were written in the law, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me.” And we know that

7. But what means this: “They contained two or three metretæ apiece”? This phrase certainly conveys to us a mysterious meaning. For by “metretæ” he me

8. Wherefore, whoso names the Father and the Son ought thereby to understand the mutual love of the Father and Son, which is the Holy Spirit. And perh

9. But there is also another meaning that must not be passed over, and which I will declare: let every man choose which he likes best. We keep not bac

10. In the very beginning, Adam and Eve were the parents of all nations, not of the Jews only and whatever was represented in Adam concerning Christ,

11. Christ was represented also in Noah and in that ark of the whole world. For why were all kinds of animals shut in, in the ark but to signify all n

12. Now, in the third water-pot, to Abraham, as I have mentioned before, it was said, “In thy seed shall all nations be blessed.” And who does not see

13. But as to David, why do I say that his prophecy extends to all nations, when we have just heard the psalm (and it is difficult to mention a psalm

14. Now what I said, brethren, that prophecy extends to all nations (for I wish to show you another meaning in the expression, “Containing two or thre

15. Moreover, in the fifth age, in the fifth water-pot as it were, Daniel saw a stone that had been cut from a mountain without hands, and had broken

16. To the sixth age belongs John the Baptist, than whom none greater has arisen among those born of women of whom it was said, that he was “greater

17. But how do we show that all nations belong to the “two or three metretæ apiece”? It was a matter of reckoning, in some measure, that he should say

2. “He went down,” as the evangelist says, “to Capernaum, He, and His mother, and His brethren, and His disciples and they continued there not many d

3. But rather were those disciples brethren for even those kinsmen would not be brethren were they not disciples: and to no advantage brethren, if th

4. What follows upon this? “And the Jews’ passover was at hand and He went up to Jerusalem.” The narrator relates another matter, as it came to his r

5. Yet we say, brethren (for He did not spare those men: He who was to be scourged by them first scourged them), that He gave us a certain sign, in th

6. However, to seek the mystery of the deed in the figure, who are they that sell oxen? Who are they that sell sheep and doves? They are they who seek

7. Well, who sell oxen? They who have dispensed to us the Holy Scriptures are understood to mean the oxen. The apostles were oxen, the prophets were o

8. These men, however, deceive the people by the very Scriptures, that they may receive honors and praises at their hand, and that men may not turn to

9. “Then the disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine house hath eaten me up:” because by this zeal of God’s house, the Lord cast t

10. “The Jews said unto Him, What sign showest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?” And the Lord answered, “Destroy this temple, and in

11. But perhaps this is demanded of us, whether the fact that the temple was forty and six years in building may not have in it some mystery. There ar

12. Now, what does the number Forty-six mean? Meanwhile, how Adam extends over the whole globe, you have already heard explained yesterday, by the fou

13. We bless the Lord our God, who gathered us together to spiritual joy. Let us be ever in humility of heart, and let our joy be with Him. Let us not

2. Behold, you have heard that when our Lord Jesus Christ “was in Jerusalem at the Passover, on the feast day, many believed in His name, seeing the s

3. “And there was a man of the Pharisees, Nicodemus by name, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Him by night, and said unto Him, Rabbi (you already

4. Therefore, since Nicodemus was of that number, he came to the Lord, but came by night and this perhaps pertains to the matter. Came to the Lord, a

5. Therefore mark, my brethren, what answer this man who came to Jesus by night makes. Although he came to Jesus, yet because he came by night, he sti

6. This Nicodemus, who had come to Jesus by night, did not savor of this spirit and this life. Saith Jesus to him, “Except a man be born again, he sha

7. He that is born of the Catholic Church, is born, as it were, of Sarah, of the free woman he that is born of heresy is, as it were, born of the bon

8. The patriarchs, then, are these three, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You know that the sons of Jacob were twelve, and thence the people Israel for Ja

9. I suppose, brethren, that this is known in the Church, and that what we are saying is manifest by daily examples but let us consider these things

10. How do we find this in these three names, “I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob”? We hold the bond women among the

11. Accordingly we have now found, brethren, of the good, good—of the free woman, Isaac and of the evil, evil—of the bond woman, Ishmael and of the

12. A great mystery is there. They were playing together, Ishmael and Isaac: Sarah sees them playing, and says to Abraham, “Cast out the bond woman an

13. These men, too, dare to say that they are wont to suffer persecution from catholic kings, or from catholic princes. What persecution do they bear?

14. But they wonder that Christian powers are roused against detestable scatterers of the Church. Should they not be moved, then? How otherwise should

15. For see what they do and what they suffer. They slay souls, they suffer in body: they cause everlasting deaths, and yet they complain that they th

2. Spiritual regeneration is one, just as the generation of the flesh is one. And Nicodemus said the truth when he said to the Lord that a man cannot,

3. It was in answer to Nicodemus, who was of them that had believed on Jesus, that it was said, And Jesus did not trust Himself to them. To certain me

4. No man can return into his mother’s bowels and be born again. But some one is born of a bond woman? Well, did they who were born of bond women at t

5. The Lord says to Nicodemus, and explains to him: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot

6. “Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be?” And, in fact, in the carnal sense, he knew not how. In him occurred what the Lord

7. And He goes on, “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not how shall ye believe, if I tell you heavenly things?” What earthly things d

8. And He goes on: “And no man hath ascended into heaven, but He that came down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.” Behold, He was here, an

9. Therefore, if none but He descended and ascended, what hope is there for the rest? The hope for the rest is this, that He came down in order that i

10. For He came down and died, and by that death delivered us from death: being slain by death, He slew death. And you know, brethren, that this death

11. He endured death, then but death He hanged on the cross, and mortal men are delivered from death. The Lord calls to mind a great matter, which wa

12. “For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world through Him may be saved.” So far, then, as it lies in the physici

13. “And this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” My brethre

14. Run, my brethren, lest the darkness lay hold of you. Awake to your salvation, awake while there is time let none be kept back from the temple of

2. Now, therefore, the order of our reading obliges us to return to that same John. The same is he who was prophesied of by Isaiah, “The voice of one

3. John, however, may say something more evidently, that our Lord Jesus Christ is God. We may find this in the present passage, that it is perhaps of

4. Now let John also declare his witness: “After these things came Jesus and His disciples into the land of Judea and there He tarried with them, and

5. But though we have said that angels eat, do not fancy, brethren, that this is done with teeth. For if you think so, God, of whom the angels eat, is

6. Let us hear John: “Jesus baptized.” We said that Jesus baptized. How Jesus? How the Lord? How the Son of God? How the Word? Well, but the Word was

7. But some one will say, “It were enough, then, that John baptized only the Lord what need was there for others to be baptized by John?” Now we have

8. “Then there arose a question on the part of John’s disciples with the Jews about purifying.” John baptized, Christ baptized. John’s disciples were

9. Let us see, then, what answer John gives: “They came unto John, and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest

10. But hear a far stronger, a far more expressive testimony. See ye what it is we are treating of see ye that to love any person in place of Christ

11. Brethen, return in thought to your own homes. I speak of carnal, I speak of earthly things I speak after the manner of men, for the infirmity of

12. Let us return and see what this John saith: “He that hath the bride is the bridegroom ” she is not my bride. And dost thou not rejoice in the marr

13. What shall I say, then, brethren? Even the heretics have virgins, and there are many virgins among heretics. Let us see whether they love the Brid

14. But what shall I say, brethren? Let us see plainly what He purchased. For there He bought, where He paid the price. Paid it for how much? If He pa

15. Evidently, then, my brethren, it profits those men nothing to keep virginity, to have continence, to give alms. All those doings which are praised

16. But what say they? “We have baptism.” Thou hast, but not thine. It is one thing to have, another to own. Baptism thou hast, for thou hast received

17. Let no man tell you fables, then. “Pontius wrought a miracle and Donatus prayed, and God answered him from heaven.” In the first place, either th

18. Therefore, my brethren, let no man deceive you, let no man seduce you: love the peace of Christ, who was crucified for you, whilst He was God. Pau

2. Accordingly John confessed Him: as you have heard that when Jesus was making many disciples, and they reported to John as if to excite him to jealo

3. Now this is what follows: and John says, “This my joy therefore is fulfilled.” What is his joy? To rejoice at the Bridegroom’s voice. It is fulfill

4. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” What is this? He must be exalted, but I must be humbled. How is Jesus to increase? How is God to increase?

5. What means, then, “He must increase, but I must decrease”? This is a great mystery! Before the Lord Jesus came, men were glorying of themselves He

6. What we have just heard, appears now distinctly and clearly. “He that cometh from above, is above all.” See what he says of Christ. What of himself

7. “He that cometh from heaven is above all and what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth: and no man receiveth His testimony.” Cometh from hea

8. “He that cometh from heaven is above all and what He hath seen and heard, that testifieth He and His testimony no man receiveth.” If no man, to w

9. “For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.” Himself is the true God, and God sent Him: God sent God. Join both, one God, true God sent b

10. “For He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.” This, of course, he said of Christ, to distinguish himself from Christ. What then? Did not

11. Now hear further what follows: because He had said of the Son, “For God giveth not the Spirit by measure: the Father loveth the Son, and hath give

12. But the disciples, still thinking that the Father is something greater than the Son, seeing only the flesh, and not understanding His divinity, sa

13. Carnal thought does not apprehend what I say: let it defer understanding, and begin by faith let it hear what follows: “He that believeth on the

2. Now when the Lord knew this, “when He had heard that the Pharisees had learned that He was making more disciples than John, and baptized more (thou

3. It may perhaps surprise you why it is said, that “Jesus baptized more than John ” and after this was said, it is subjoined, “although Jesus baptize

4. But it may be one saith, Christ does indeed baptize, but in spirit, not in body. As if, indeed, it were by the gift of another than He that any is

5. This much, then, on the preliminary circumstances, by occasion of which He came to a conversation with that woman, let us look at the matters that

6. “Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour.” Now begin the mysteries. For it is not withou

7. As weak, then, He nourishes the weak, as a hen her chickens for He likened Him self to a hen: “How often,” He saith to Jerusalem, “would I have ga

8. Under this image of things, Adam, who was the figure of Him that was to be, afforded us a great indication of this mystery rather, God afforded it

9. But why at the sixth hour? Because at the sixth age of the world. In the Gospel, count up as an hour each, the first age from Adam to Noah the sec

10. “And there came a woman.” Figure of the Church not yet justified, but now about to be justified: for this is the subject of the discourse. She com

11. “Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink. For His disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then saith the Samaritan woman unto Him, How

12. At length, hear who it is that asketh drink: “Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee,

13. The woman, however, being in suspense, saith to Him, “Lord, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep.” See how she understood the livi

14. The Lord speaks somewhat more clearly of that living water. Now the woman had said, “Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well,

15. Still, however, the woman has her mind on the flesh: she is delighted with the thought of thirsting no more, and fancies that this was promised to

16. Nevertheless, let us not overlook the fact that it is something spiritual that the Lord was promising. What means, “Whoso shall drink of this wate

17. What He was promising them was a certain feeding and abundant fullness of the Holy Spirit: but the woman did not yet understand and not understan

18. At length, wishing her to understand, “Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.” What means this, “Call thy husband”? Was it t

19. Now Jesus, seeing that the woman did not understand, and willing her to understand, says to her, “Call thy husband.” “For the reason why thou know

20. And, the husband being not yet called, still she does not understand, still she minds the flesh for the man is absent: “I have not,” saith she, “

21. Once more He urges us to investigate the matter somewhat more exactly concerning these five husbands. Many have in fact understood, not indeed abs

22. This husband had not yet succeeded to those five husbands in that woman. And where he does not succeed, error sways. For when the soul has begun t

23. “The woman saith unto Him, Sir, I see that thou art a prophet.” The husband begins to come, he is not yet fully come. She accounted the Lord a pro

24. What, however, does the Lord teach the woman now, as one whose husband has begun to be present? “The woman saith unto Him, Sir, I perceive that th

25. We have heard, and it is manifest we had gone out of doors, and we are sent inward. Would I could find, thou didst say, some high and lonely moun

26. “The hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. We worship that which we know: ye worship

27. The woman heard this, and proceeded. She had already called Him a prophet she observes that He with whom she was speaking uttered such things as

28. Then, “The woman saith unto Him, I know that Messias will come, who is called Christ: when He then is come, He will tell us all things. Jesus sait

29. “And immediately came His disciples, and marvelled that He talked with the woman.” That He was seeking her that was lost, He who came to seek that

30. “The woman then left her water-pot.” Having heard, “I that speak with thee am He,” and having received Christ the Lord into her heart, what could

31. “And in the meanwhile His disciples besought Him, saying, Master, eat.” For they had gone to buy meat, and had returned. “But He said, I have meat

32. “Say ye not, that there are yet four months, and then cometh harvest?” He was aglow for the work, and was arranging to send forth laborers. You co

33. “And many Samaritans of that city believed on Him, because of the saying of the woman, who testified, He told me all that ever I did. And when the

2. Now mark well, beloved, while the Lord suggests and bestows what I may speak, that here is intimated to us no slight mystery. You know the question

3. Hear then, dearly beloved, what I think in this matter, without prejudice to your own judgment, if you have formed a better. For we have all one Ma

4. For, though one of the chosen and holy twelve, yet he was an Israelite, of the Lord’s nation, that Thomas who desired to put his fingers into the p

5. For He showed that He would break off these branches, and ingraft this wild olive, when moved by the faith of the centurion, who said to Him, “I am

6. Hear now how the natural branches are cut off, how the wild olive is grafted in, by means of the centurion himself, whom I have thought proper to m

7. Therefore let the Prophet have honor among us, because He had no honor in His own country. He had no honor in His country, wherein He was formed l

2. Of this pool, which was surrounded with five porches, in which lay a great multitude of sick folk, I remember that I have very often treated and m

3. What was done, then, that they who could not be healed in the porches might be healed in that water after being troubled? For on a sudden the water

4. Now let us see what He intended to signify in the case of that one whom He Himself, keeping the mystery of unity, as I said before, deigned to heal

5. The Lord Jesus Himself showed this also far more openly, when He companied on earth with His disciples during forty days after His resurrection an

6. How, then, is work perfected in the number forty? The reason, it may be, is, because the law was given in ten precepts, and was to be preached thro

7. Therefore let us now see the sacred mystery whereby this impotent man is healed by the Lord. The Lord Himself came, the Teacher of love, full of lo

8. How, then, do we find the two precepts of love indicated in these two commands of the Lord? “Take up thy bed,” saith He, “and walk.” What the two p

9. But why the love of our neighbor is set forth by the taking up of the bed, is still shut up, and, as I suppose, needs to be expounded: unless, perh

10. The man did this, and the Jews were offended. For they saw a man carrying his bed on the Sabbath-day, and they did not blame the Lord for healing

11. “But he that was made whole knew not who it was” that had said this to him. “For Jesus,” when He had done this, and given him this order, “turned

12. The man, then, after he saw Jesus, and knew Him to be the author of his healing, was not slothful in preaching Him whom he had seen: “He departed,

13. The Jews persecuted the Lord Jesus because He did these things on the Sabbath-day. Let us hear what answer the Lord now made to the Jews. I have t

14. Let us see, then, the answer made by the Truth: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” Is it false, then, which the Scripture has said, that “G

15. Perhaps we can more appropriately say this, that in the saying, “God rested on the seventh day,” he signified by a great mystery the Lord and our

16. Further, what said the evangelist as he went on? “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but said

Tractate XVIII.

2. Now the Jews were moved and indignant: justly, indeed, because a man dared to make himself equal with God but unjustly in this, because in the man

3. What saith He then to them? “Then answered Jesus, and said unto them,” being indignant because He made Himself equal with God, “Verily, verily, I s

4. In this distorted and depraved rule of his own heart, let the heretic hear us, not as yet chiding, but still as it were inquiring, and let him expl

5. But to these words, by which thy heart is disturbed, bend thy thought, and reflect with me on that which we were seeking out concerning the Word. W

6. Withdraw, then, from this wisdom of the flesh, and let us inquire in what manner it is said, “The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He se

7. What then, beloved, are we going to explain that which we have asked, how the Word seeth, how the Father is seen by the Word, what the seeing of th

8. Yet the Lord also has not left us to chance, since, in that He said, “The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He seeth the Father doing,” H

9. “For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth.” Here is that “showeth.” “Showeth,” as it were, to whom? Of course,

10. And we, who see in one way, and hear in another way, how know we this? We return perhaps to ourselves, if we are not the trangressors to whom it i

11. Do we think we have knocked? Is there raised up within us something whereby we may even slightly conjecture whence light may come to us? It is my

12. I think I have spoken long enough, and yet I have not concluded the Gospel lesson: if I go on to declare what remains, I shall burden you, and I f

2. “The Son,” saith He, “cannot do anything of Himself, but what He sees the Father doing.” This is true: hold this fast, while at the same time ye do

3. “For the Father loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that Himself doeth.” To that which He said above, “except what He seeth the Father doing

4. Attend now to a wider and more difficult question. “And greater works than these,” saith He, “will He show Him, that ye may marvel.” “Greater than

5. But what are the greater works? For perhaps this is easy to understand. “For as the Father,” saith He, “raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, e

6. “Whoso honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father that sent Him.” This is a truth, and is plain. Since, then, “all judgment hath He given to the

7. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whoso heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but is

8. “Whoso heareth my word, and believeth Him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but is passed from death unto life.” You r

9. May He open the same more fully, and dawn upon us as He begins to do! “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is.” We did look

10. What then? How do we understand these two resurrections? Do we, it may be, understand that they who rise now will not rise then that the resurrec

11. Turn your thoughts now to what we said had to be deferred, that it may now, if possible, be opened. Concerning this very resurrection He immediate

12. But here also arises a cloud that must be scattered. Let us not lose heart, let us strive in earnest. Here are pastures of the mind let us not di

13. Not, then, in like manner as the soul is one thing before it is enlightened, and becomes a better thing when it is enlightened, by participation o

14. But what of that resurrection of the body? For these who hear and live, whence live, except by hearing? For “the friend of the Bridegroom standeth

15. Wherefore, keep not silent, O Lord, concerning the resurrection of the flesh lest men believe it not, and we continue reasoners, not preachers. B

16. Now hear concerning the resurrection of bodies, not me, but the Lord about to speak, on account of those who have risen again by a resurrection fr

17. Let Him declare this more distinctly, that the heretical denier of the resurrection of the body may not find a pretext for sophistical cavil, alth

18. “All shall hear His voice, and shall come forth.” And where is judgment, if all shall hear and all shall come forth? It is as if all were confusio

19. “I cannot of myself do anything: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just.” Else we might have said to Him, “Thou wilt judge, and the Father wi

20. What then? “As I hear, I judge.” The Son “heareth,” and the Father “showeth” to Him, and the Son seeth the Father doing. But we had deferred these

2. Now you need to be reminded whence this discourse arose, by reason of what precedes this passage, where the Lord had cured a certain man among thos

3. But the catholic faith has it, that the works of the Father and of the Son are not separable. This is what I wish, if possible, to speak to you, be

4. Behold, then, we have now heard the Gospel, where He answered the Jews who were indignant “that He not only broke the Sabbath, but said also that G

5. He appears to have made Himself as it were less, when He said, “The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He seeth the Father doing.” Hereupo

6. Return then with me to what I was saying, in case it is so to be understood that we may both escape from the question. For I see how I, according t

7. We have got clear of this question. Mark ye that rightly we say the works of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit are inseparable. But as

8. Wherefore the works of the Father and of the Son are inseparable. Moreover, this, “The Son cannot do anything of Himself,” would mean the same thin

9. Moreover, He goes on in His own words, and troubles those that understand the matter amiss, in order to recall the erring to a right apprehension o

10. After He had said, “these doeth,” why did He add, “in like manner doeth”? Lest another distorted understanding or error should spring up in the mi

11. Seek in the Father and Son a separation, thou findest none no, not if thou hast mounted high no, not even if thou hast reached something above t

12. Consider the body: it is mortal, earthy, weak, corruptible away with it. Yes, perhaps thou sayest, but the body is temporal. Think then of other

13. Do not imagine that thou art to do something beyond a man’s ability. The Evangelist John himself did this. He soared beyond the flesh, beyond the

2. He had said, “The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He seeth the Father doing.” We, however, understood it not that the Father doeth some

3. What seeth the Father, or rather, what doth the Son see in the Father, that Himself also may do? Perhaps I may be able to speak it, but show me the

4. How much soever then we may understand, and how much soever we may see, we shall not see as the Son seeth, even when we shall be made equal with th

5. “And greater works than these will He show Him, that ye may marvel.” Here again we are embarrassed. And who is there that may worthily investigate

6. Let us again call to mind whence this discourse started. It was when that man who was thirty-eight years in infirmity was healed, and Jesus command

7. But now He condescends to us, and He who a little before was speaking as God, now begins to speak as man. Notwithstanding, the same is man who is G

8. Let us rejoice, then, and give thanks that we are made not only Christians, but Christ. Do ye understand, brethren, and apprehend the grace of God

9. Whenever, then, the Father showeth to Christ’s members, He showeth to Christ. A certain great but yet real miracle happens. There is a showing to C

10. This, then, He is about to show us this He showed to His disciples, who saw Him in the flesh. What is this? “As the Father raiseth the dead, and

11. And who are these dead whom the Father and the Son quicken? Are they the same of whom we have spoken—Lazarus, or that widow’s son, or the ruler of

12. “For,” saith He, “the Father judgeth no man, but all judgment hath He given to the Son.” A little before we were thinking that the Father doeth so

13. By all means there is a sense, a true and strong sense, if somehow we can grasp it, in which “the Father judgeth not any man, but hath given all j

14. Behold, that form of man will be seen by the godly and by the wicked, by the just and the unjust, by the believers and unbelievers, by those that

15. Behold, He has named eternal life. Has He told us that we shall there see and know the Father and Son? What if we shall live for ever, yet not see

16. And immediately, then, after the judgment mentioned, all which the Father, not judging any man, hath given to the Son, what shall be? What follows

17. Behold, says some one, the Son has been sent and the Father is greater, because He sent. Withdraw from the flesh the old man suggests oldness in

2. Lo, what these secrets of His words are, consider well. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whoso heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me,

3. “Whoso heareth my words,” saith He, “and believeth Him that sent me, hath eternal life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death

4. What is this, “and thou comest not into judgment”? And who will be better than the Apostle Paul, who saith, “We must all appear before the judgment

5. The Lord our God then reveals it, and by His Scriptures puts us in mind how it may be understood when judgment is spoken of. I exhort you, therefor

6. For, lest thou shouldest think that by believing thou art not to die according to the flesh, or lest, understanding it carnally, thou shouldest say

7. Himself explains that already, and goes on, “Verily, verily, I say unto you.” In case, because He said “is passed from death to life,” we should un

8. “The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live.” From what source shall they liv

9. And how hath He? Even as the Father hath. Hear Himself saying, “For as the Father hath life in Himself, so also hath He given to the Son to have li

10. I may perhaps declare that matter more plainly still. One lights a candle: that candle, for example, so far as regards the little flame which shin

11. Afterwards , because He was made man, what gave He to Him? “And hath given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man.” In th

12. Now, therefore, as to a resurrection, perhaps some one of us was saying: Behold, we have risen he who hears Christ, and believes, and is passed f

13. And whence, sayest thou, dost thou prove to me that He spoke about the resurrection itself? If thou hear patiently, thou wilt presently prove it t

14. “I cannot of myself do anything as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just.” If as Thou hearest Thou judgest, of whom dost Thou hear? If of the F

15. “Because I seek not my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” The Only Son saith, “I seek not my own will,” and yet men desire to do their o

Tractate XXIII.

2. The passage read to-day has spoken to us of the witness of the Lord, that He does not hold the witness of men necessary, but has a greater witness

3. For, indeed, all men are lamps, since they can be both lighted and extinguished. Moreover, when the lamps are wise, they shine and glow with the Sp

4. Wherefore both Moses bore witness to Christ, and John bore witness to Christ, and all the other prophets and apostles bore witness to Christ. Befor

5. The lesson of to-day, brethren, is easy but on account of what was due yesterday (for I know what I have delayed, not withdrawn, and the Lord has

6. These things being premised and firmly established,—that the rational soul is made happy only by God, that the body is enlivened only by the soul,

7. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son cannot of Himself do anything, but what He seeth the Father doing for what things soever He has done, the

8. Behold, again we humble ourselves to carnal notions, and descend to you, if indeed we had at any time ascended somewhat from you. Thou wishest to s

9. I have, sayest thou, another method of showing for so well instructed is my son, that he hears without my speaking, but I show him by a nod what t

10. Recognize in thyself something which I wish to say within, in thyself not within as if in thy body, for in a sense one may say, “in thyself.” For

11. Behold, in thy mind, I see some two things, thy memory and thy thought, which is, as it were, the seeing faculty and the vision of thy soul. Thou

12. Therefore let us now briefly run over what remains, and do you see how the Lord makes known to us the things which I have been here commending to

13. He then returns to that resurrection of souls: “For as the Father raiseth the dead, and quickeneth them, so also the Son quickeneth whom He will ”

14. “Verily, verily, I say unto you.” Again He returns to the resurrection of souls, that by continual repetition we may apprehend His meaning becaus

15. He has finished speaking of the resurrection of souls it remains to speak more evidently of the resurrection of bodies. “And hath given Him autho

2. Yet it is not enough to observe these things in the miracles of Christ. Let us interrogate the miracles themselves, what they tell us about Christ:

3. The Lord on the mount: much rather let us understand that the Lord on the mount is the Word on high. Accordingly, what was done on the mount does n

4. Andrew saith: “There is a lad here, who has five loaves and two fishes, but what are these for so many?” When Philip, on being asked, had said that

5. To run over it briefly: by the five loaves are understood the five books of Moses and rightly are they not wheaten but barley loaves, because they

6. Wherefore nothing is without meaning everything is significant, but requires one that understands: for even this number of the people fed, signifi

7. Lastly, what did those men who saw this miracle think? “The men,” saith he, “when they had seen the sign which He had done, said, This is indeed a

2. But why did He ascend after He knew that they wished to seize Him and make Him a king? How then was He not a king, that He was afraid to be made a

3. That ye may know that they wished to make Him a king,—that is, to anticipate, and at once to have manifest the kingdom of Christ, whom it behoved f

4. But why is it said, He escaped? For He could not be held against His will, nor seized against His will, since He could not be recognized against Hi

5. Meanwhile, He, the one great High Priest being above (He who has entered into that within the veil, the people standing without for Him that pries

6. “And a great wind blowing, the sea rose.” Darkness was increasing, discernment was diminishing, iniquity was growing. “When, therefore, they had ro

7. And yet so great are the tribulations, that even they who have trusted in Jesus, and who strive to persevere unto the end, greatly fear lest they f

8. “On the next day the multitude that stood on the other side of the sea,” whence the disciples had come, “saw that there was none other boat there,

9. “And when the multitudes had found Him.” Behold, He presents Himself to the people from whom He had escaped into the mountain, afraid that He shoul

10. After the sacrament of the miracle, He introduces discourse, that, if possible, they who have been fed may be further fed, that He may with discou

11. Therefore “this meat, not that which perisheth, but that which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you for Him h

12. “They said therefore unto Him, What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” For He had said to them, “Labor not for the meat which perish

13. “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, not Moses gave you bread from heaven, but my Father gave you bread from heaven. For th

14. “And Jesus said unto them, I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” “He t

15. “And him that will come to me, I will not cast out. For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.” Is it

16. Pride is the source of all diseases, because pride is the source of all sins. When a physician removes a disorder from the body, if he merely cure

17. See those inner things commended to us in the psalm: “But the sons of men will put their trust in the covering of Thy wings.” See what it is to en

18. Thus, the teacher of humility came not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him. Let us come to Him, enter in unto Him, be ingrafted

19. “And this,” saith He, “is the will of the Father that sent, that of all that He hath given me I should lose nothing.” He that keeps humility was g

2. What then did the Lord answer to such murmurers? “Murmur not among yourselves.” As if He said, I know why ye are not hungry, and do not understand

3. If he is drawn, saith some one, he comes unwillingly. If he comes unwillingly, then he believes not but if he believes not, neither does he come.

4. Thence also He says here, if thou turn thy attention to it, “No man cometh to me except he whom the Father shall draw.” Do not think that thou art

5. But what is this, “Whom the Father shall draw,” when Christ Himself draws? Why did He say, “Whom the Father shall draw”? If we must be drawn, let u

6. But where will this be? There better, there more truly, there more fully. For here we can more easily hunger than be satisfied, especially if we ha

7. For it is written in the prophets, “And they shall all be taught of God.” Why have I said this, O Jews? The Father has not taught you how can ye k

8. What then, brethren? If every man who has heard and learned of the Father, the same cometh unto Christ, has Christ taught nothing here? What shall

9. He Himself explains this also, and shows us His meaning when He said, “He that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me.” He forthwith s

10. Let what follows admonish us: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath eternal life.” He willed to reveal Himself, what He wa

11. “I am,” saith He, “the bread of life.” And what was the source of their pride? “Your fathers,” saith He, “did eat manha in the wilderness, and are

12. “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven.” Manna signified this bread God’s altar signified this bread. Those were sacraments. In the sig

13. “I am the living bread, which came down from heaven.” For that reason “living,” because I came down from heaven. The manna also came down from hea

14. The Jews, therefore, strove among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” They strove, and that among themselves, since t

15. But that which they ask, while striving among themselves, namely, how the Lord can give His flesh to be eaten, they do not immediately hear: but f

16. But lest they should suppose that eternal life was promised in this meat and drink in such manner that they who should take it should not even now

17. “For my flesh,” saith He, “is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.” For whilst by meat and drink men seek to attain to this, neither to hung

18. In a word, He now explains how that which He speaks of comes to pass, and what it is to eat His body and to drink His blood. “He that eateth my fl

19. “As the living Father hath sent me,” saith He, “and I live by the Father so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” He says not: As I eat t

20. “This is the bread that cometh down from heaven ” that by eating it we may live, since we cannot have eternal life from ourselves. “Not,” saith He

Tractate XXVII.

2. “Many therefore,” not of His enemies, but “of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is a hard saying who can hear it?” If His discip

3. “But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at it,”—for they so said these things with themselves that they might not be heard by Hi

4. And He said, “It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing.” Before we expound this, as the Lord grants us, that other must not be

5. What is it, then, that He adds? “It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing.” Let us say to Him (for He permits us, not contradi

6. Hence “the words,” saith He, “which I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” For we have said, brethren, that this is what the Lord had taught us

7. “But,” saith He, “there are some among you that believe not.” He said not, There are some among you that understand not but He told the cause why

8. “From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.” Went back, but after Satan, not after Christ. For our Lord Christ on

9. And now addressing the few that remained: “Then said Jesus to the twelve” (namely, those twelve who remained), “Will ye also,” said He, “go away?”

10. Then said the Lord Jesus: “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Therefore, should He have said, “I have chosen eleven:” or is

11. All this that the Lord spoke concerning His flesh and blood —and in the grace of that distribution He promised us eternal life, and that He meant

12. But what is this that He saith: “He that abideth in me, and I in him”? What, but that which the martyrs heard: “He that persevereth unto the end,

Tractate XXVIII.

2. With these preliminary remarks, I think that we shall not have to labor much for the meaning in this chapter for that is often betokened in the he

3. “Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand.” What the feast of tabernacles is, they who read the Scriptures know. They used on the holy day to

4. We have said who the brethren were, let us hear what they said: “Pass over hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see thy work which

5. What did the Lord answer to these things? Then saith Jesus to them: “My time is not yet come but your time is always ready.” What is this? Had not

6. Therefore also here: “My time is not yet come but your time,” that is the glory of the world, “is always ready.” This is the time of which Christ,

7. But what is necessary at the present time for those who have righteousness? That which is read in that psalm: “Until righteousness is turned into j

8. What said He further? “The world cannot hate you.” What is this, but, The world cannot hate its lovers, the false witnesses? For you call the thing

9. All things that were spoken to the ancient people Israel in the manifold Scripture of the holy law, what things they did, whether in sacrifices, or

10. “Then the Jews sought Him on the feast-day:” before He went up. For His brethren went up before Him, and He went not up then when they supposed an

11. “They said, therefore, Where is he? And there was much murmuring among the people concerning Him.” Whence the murmuring? Of strife. What was the s

12. “Howbeit no man spake openly of Him for fear of the Jews.” But who were they that did not speak of Him for fear of the Jews? Undoubtedly they who

2. Then afterwards the Lord went up to the feast, “about the middle of the feast, and taught.” “And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man l

3. How then did the Lord answer those that were marvelling how He knew letters which He had not learned? “My doctrine,” saith He, “is not mine, but Hi

4. The Word then is God and it is also the Word of a stable, unchangeable doctrine, not such as can be sounded by syllables and fleeting, but abiding

5. Therefore, to speak briefly, beloved, it seems to me that the Lord Jesus Christ said, “My doctrine is not mine,” meaning the same thing as if He sa

6. If we have understood this, thanks be to God but if any has not sufficiently understood, man has done as far as he could: as for the rest, let him

7. This sentence overthrows the Sabellian heresy. The Sabellians have dared to affirm that the Son is the very same as He who is also the Father: that

8. “He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: ‘This will be he who is called Antichrist,’ exalting himself,” as the apostle says, “above all

2. “Did not Moses,” saith He, “give you the law, and yet none of you doeth the law? Why do ye seek to kill me?” For ye seek to kill me just for this r

3. But the Lord, manifestly not disturbed, but calm in His truth, rendered not evil for evil nor railing for railing although, if He were to say to t

4. “I have done one work, and ye all marvel.” And immediately He subjoined: “Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision.” It was well done that ye rec

5. Perhaps, indeed, that circumcision pointed to the Lord Himself, at whom they were indignant, because He worked cures and healing. For circumcision

6. “Judge not according to personal appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” What is this? Just now, you who by the law of Moses circumcise on the S

7. It requires great labor in this world, brethren to get clear of the vice which the Lord has noted in this place, so as not to judge by appearance,

8. Who is he that judges not according to the person? He that loves equally. Equal love causes that persons be not accepted. It is not when we honor m

2. Then those same persons who had said, “Did the rulers know that this is the Christ?” proposed a question among themselves, by which it appeared to

3. Hear, therefore, the word of the Lord, brethren see how He confirmed to them both what they said, “We know this man whence he is,” and also what t

4. Lastly, when He had said, “But He that sent me is true, whom ye know not,” in order to show them whence they might know that which they did not kno

5. “Then they sought to take Him: but no man laid hands on Him, because His hour was not yet come ” that is, because He was not willing. For what is t

6. In short, that ye may know that the words refer, not to the necessity of His dying, but to His power,—I speak this for the sake of some who, when t

7. “But many of the people believed on Him.” The Lord made whole the humble and the poor. The rulers were mad, and therefore they not only did not ack

8. But those rulers, having heard the assurance of the multitude, and that murmuring noise of the people in which Christ was being glorified, “sent of

9. “Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me: and where I am, thither ye cannot come.” Here He has already foretold His resurrection for they would no

10. “Then said the Jews,” not to Him, but “to themselves, Whither will this man go, that we shall not find him? will he go unto the dispersion among t

11. For of that Church of the Gentiles which was to come, the woman that had the issue of blood was a type: she touched and was not seen she was not

Tractate XXXII.

2. Accordingly, the Lord cries aloud to us: for, “He stood and cried out, if any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me,

3. I would say something further, by which it may more clearly appear to you, beloved, how much the mind is loved, and how it is preferred to the body

4. The Lord, therefore, cries aloud to us to come and drink, if we thirst within and He says that when we have drunk, rivers of living water shall fl

5. The evangelist explained, as I have said, whereof the Lord had cried out, to what kind of drink He had invited, what He had procured for them that

6. But what is meant by this which he says, “For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified?” He is understood to say this in a

7. How then, brethren, because he that is baptized in Christ, and believes on Him, does not speak now in the tongues of all nations, are we not to bel

8. Consequently, we too receive the Holy Ghost if we love the Church, if we are joined together by charity, if we rejoice in the Catholic name and fai

9. Why then was it the will of the Lord, seeing that the Spirit’s benefits in us are the greatest, because by Him the love of God is shed abroad in ou

Tractate XXXIII.

2. “Nicodemus,” however, “one of the Pharisees, who had come to the Lord by night,”—not indeed as being himself unbelieving, but timid for therefore

3. “Thence Jesus went unto the mount ” namely, to mount “Olivet,”—unto the fruitful mount, unto the mount of ointment, unto the mount of chrism. For w

4. And now observe wherein the Lord’s gentleness was tempted by His enemies. “And the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman just taken in adult

5. What answer, then, did the Lord Jesus make? How answered the Truth? How answered Wisdom? How answered that Righteousness against which a false accu

6. But when that woman was left alone, and all they were gone out, He raised His eyes to the woman. We have heard the voice of justice, let us also he

7. Let them take heed, then, who love His gentleness in the Lord, and let them fear His truth. For “The Lord is sweet and right.” Thou lovest Him in t

8. From both, then, men are in danger both from hoping and despairing, from contrary things, from contrary affections. Who is deceived by hoping? He

Tractate XXXIV.

2. I think that what the Lord says, “I am the light of the world, “is clear to those that have eyes, by which they are made partakers of this light: b

3. There is therefore a Light which made this light of the sun: let us love this Light, let us long to understand it, let us thirst for the same that

4. Since, therefore, as the mercy of God is multiplied, men and beasts are saved by Him, have not men something else which God as Creator bestows on t

5. That unfailing Light, the Light of wisdom, speaking through the cloud of the flesh, says to men, “I am the light of the world he that followeth me

6. You see, then, my brethren, you see, if you see inwardly, what kind of light this is, of which the Lord says, “He that followeth me shall not walk

7. Accordingly, “He that followeth me,” saith He, “shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” What He has promised, He put in a wo

8. Wherefore, my brethren, since the Lord says briefly, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have

9. And what do they follow, who have been loosed and raised up, but the Light from which they hear, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me

10. All this by faith, so long as we are absent from the Lord, dwelling in the body but when we shall have traversed the way, and have reached the ho

2. When our Lord Jesus Christ had spoken these things, the Jews answered, “Thou bearest record of thyself thy record is not true.” Before our Lord Je

3. The Lord Jesus Christ, then, had the witness of prophets sent before Him, of the heralds that preceded the judge: He had witness from John but He

4. The Jews then answered, “Thou bearest witness of thyself thy witness is not true.” Let us see what they hear let us also hear, yet not as they di

5. “I know whence I came and whither I go.” He who speaks to you in person has what He has not left, and yet He came for by coming He departed not th

6. The witness of the light then is true, whether it be manifesting itself or other things for without light thou canst not see light, and without li

7. For it is from prophecy that we convince gainsaying pagans. Who is Christ? says the pagan. To whom we reply, He whom the prophets foretold. What pr

8. Behold, even lamps bear witness to the day, because of our weakness, for we cannot bear and look at the brightness of the day. In comparison, indee

9. When, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ shall come, and, as the Apostle Paul also says, will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will

Tractate XXXVI.

2. Whatever, then, you have heard stated in lowly manner concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, think of that economy by which He assumed flesh but whatev

3. These Jews then saw the man they neither perceived nor believed Him to be God: and you have already heard how, among all the rest, they said to Hi

4. “I judge not any man.” Does not the Lord Jesus Christ, then, judge any man? Is He not the same of whom we confess that He rose again on the third d

5. But that you may know that Christ is judge even now, hear what follows: “And if I judge, my judgment is true.” Behold, thou hast Him as thy judge,

6. Why have I said this? For perhaps after these words one may justly say to me: Lay aside the book then. Why dost thou take in hand what exceeds thy

7. I will accordingly speak let him who can, understand and let him who cannot understand, believe: yet will I speak what the Lord saith, “Ye judge

8. For there are certain heretics called Sabellians, who are also called Patripassians, who affirm that it was the Father Himself that had suffered. D

9. How, then, is His judgment true, but because the Son is true? For this He said: “And if I judge, my judgment is true because I am not alone, but I

10. He had spoken of judgment He means to speak of testimony. “In your law,” saith He, “it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am one

11. Let us, brethren, choose for ourselves God as our judge, God as our witness, against the tongues of men, against the weak suspicions of mankind. F

12. Let it not by any means surprise any one that He says, “My judgment is true because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me ” whilst He

13. Likewise, let it not surprise you that He says, “In your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true,” that any man should hence suppo

Tractate XXXVII.

2. Let us see, then, what answer the Lord made to this. “Where,” say they, “is thy Father?” For we have heard thee say, “I am not alone, but I and the

3. “For if ye knew me, ye would perhaps know my Father also.” He who knows all things is not in doubt when He says perhaps , but rebuking. Now see how

4. You now, as I think, understand how the word perhaps is used here, in case any weigher of words and poiser of syllables, as if to show his knowledg

5. He, then, by whom all things were made knows all things, and yet He rebukes by doubting: “If ye knew me ye would perhaps know my Father also.” He r

6. Yesterday we commended it to your consideration, beloved, and said that the sentences of the Evangelist John, in which he narrates to us what he le

7. A little before He said, “My judgment is true because I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me:” as if He said, The reason why my judgmen

8. “These words spake Jesus in the treasury, speaking in the temple:” great boldness, without fear. For He could not suffer if He did not will it, sin

9. Hear, thou fool: “His hour was not yet come ” not the hour in which He should be forced to die, but that in which He would deign to be put to death

10. Says one, If he had this power, why, when the Jews insulted him on the cross and said, “If he be the Son of God let him come down from the cross,”

Tractate XXXVIII.

2. But of His own passion itself, which lay not in any necessity He was under, but in His own power, all that He said in His discourse to the Jews was

3. But on hearing these words, as is usual with those whose thoughts are carnal, who judge after the flesh, and hear and apprehend everything in a car

4. And what said the Lord to those who savored of the earth? “And He said unto them, Ye are from beneath.” For this cause ye savor of the earth, becau

5. Therefore said He, “I am from above. Ye are of this world: I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins.” He h

6. Let none then, brethren, say, I am not of this world. Whoever thou art as a man, thou art of this world but He who made the world came to thee, an

7. But He explains whence this should befall them: “For if ye believe not that I am [He], ye shall die in your sins.” I believe, brethren, that among

8. But look at this which is said by Christ the Lord: “If ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins.” What is this, “If ye believe not that

9. What then of us? Shall we venture to say anything on such words, “I am who am ” or rather on this, that you have heard the Lord saying, “If ye beli

10. I shall speak, then, to our Lord Jesus Christ I shall speak and may He be pleased to hear me. I believe He is present, I am fully assured of it

11. And savoring as these men always did of the earth, and ever hearing and answering according to the flesh, what did they say to Him? “Who art thou?

Tractate XXXIX.

2. But what shall we do? Are there, then, two beginnings? Let us beware of saying so. What then, if both the Father is the beginning and the Son the b

3. But all this seems absurd to those who drag up familiar things to a level with things little known, visible things with invisible, and compare the

4. What I say you may gather from daily analogies. So it is with one man and another, if the one be a father, the other his son. He is man as regards

5. Take an illustration from the Holy Scriptures, whereby you may in some measure comprehend what I am saying. After our Lord Jesus Christ rose again,

6. Let us hear, then, the Beginning who speaks to us: “I have,” said He, “many things to say of you and to judge.” You remember that He said, “I do no

7. “I have many things,” He said, “to say of you and to judge: but He that sent me is true ” as if He had said, Therefore I judge the truth, because,

8. I see I must speak more plainly. And, not to detain you long, let me treat only of this point to-day. When I have finished what, with God’s help, I

2. We have spoken to you on the preceding passage, suggesting how the Father may be understood as True, and the Son as the Truth. But when the Lord Je

3. The Lord then, recognizing such in that crowd, said, “When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am [He].” You know already w

4. Let not then, my brethren, His further words, “As my Father hath taught me, I speak these things,” be the occasion of any carnal thought stealing i

5. What shall we say then, brethren? How spake the Father to the Son, seeing that the Son says, “As the Father taught me, I speak these things”? Did H

6. Thus then He spoke to the Jews, and added, “And He that sent me is with me.” He had already said this also before, but of this important point He i

7. “As He spake these words, many believed on Him.” Would that, while I speak also, many, who before this were otherwise disposed, understood and beli

8. “Then said the Lord to those Jews who believed on Him, If ye continue in my word.” “Continue,” I say, for you are now initiated and have begun to b

9. What, brethren, does He promise believers? “And ye shall know the truth.” Why so? Had they not come to such knowledge when the Lord was speaking? I

10. What shall I say to your Charity? Oh that our hearts were in some measure aspiring after that ineffable glory! Oh that we were passing our pilgrim

11. I have been exhorting you, brethren, to this in such words, because the freedom of which our Lord Jesus Christ speaks belongs not to this present

2. In short, the Jews also so understood and “answered Him ” not those who had already believed, but those in that crowd who were not yet believers. “

3. But to the Lord’s own answer, let us give better and more earnest heed, lest we ourselves be also found bondmen. For “Jesus answered them, Verily,

4. What, then, is the charge given? Verily, verily, I say unto you, saith the Truth who surely, though He had not said, Verily, I say, could not possi

5. From this bondage, then, we are set free by the Lord alone. He who had it not, Himself delivers us from it for He alone came without sin in the fl

6. But perhaps, through some special perception of my own, I have said that sin is a sacrifice for sin. Let those who have read it be free to acknowle

7. With efficacious merit does He deliver from this bondage of sin, who saith in the psalms: “I am become as a man without help, free among the dead.”

8. Since, then, every one that committeth sin is the servant of sin, listen to what is our hope of liberty. “And the servant,” He says, “abideth not i

9. The first stage of liberty is to be free from crimes. Give heed, my brethren, give heed, that I may not by any means mislead your understanding as

10. The first stage of liberty, then, is to be free from crimes [sinful conduct]. And so the Apostle Paul, when he determined on the ordination of eit

11. In the measure then spoken of above, he felt himself to be already free, and there fore said, “I delight in the law of God after the inward man.”

12. But if with the flesh thou servest the law of sin, do as the apostle himself says: “Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye shoul

13. What then is that full and perfect liberty in the Lord Jesus, who said, “If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed ” and when s

2. You have heard, indeed, the Lord saying, “I know that ye are Abraham’s children.” Hear what He says afterwards: “I speak that which I have seen wit

3. “They answered and said unto Him, Abraham is our father ” as if, What hast thou to say against Abraham? or, If thou canst, dare to find fault with

4. Let us hear how the Lord answered them, praising Abraham to their condemnation. “Jesus saith unto them, If ye are Abraham’s children, do the works

5. But we, dearly beloved, do we come of Abraham’s race, or was Abraham in any sense our father according to the flesh? The flesh of the Jews draws it

6. Why, then, does this empty and vain bragging exalt itself? Let them cease boasting that they are the children of Abraham. They have heard what they

7. And now what answer did they give Him? For they began somewhat to realize that the Lord was not speaking of carnal generation, but of their manner

8. Has falsehood indeed found something to say, and should not truth find its fitting reply? Let us hear what they say: let us hear what they hear. “W

9. “Why,” He says, “do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word.” And so they could not understand, because they could not hea

10. Here, now, we must beware of the heresy of the Manicheans, which affirms that there is a certain principle of evil, and a certain family of darkne

11. But listen now to what the Lord says: “Ye,” said He, “are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.” This is how ye are h

12. “When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” What is this? You have heard the words of the Gospel: yo

13. Hear and understand. I shall not send thee far away [for the meaning] understand it from the words themselves. The Lord called the devil the fath

14. Those Jews, then, spake what they saw with their father. And what was that but falsehood? But the Lord saw with His Father what He should speak a

15. “He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.” Here, again, it is not of their nature as men, but

16. Therefore came the Lord God to man as a sinner. Thou hast heard the two names, both man and sinner of God

Tractate XLIII.

2. For when the Jews had said, “Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?” of these two charges cast at Him, He denied the one, but

3. And then after such an insult, this was all that He said of His own glory: “But I honor,” said He, “my Father, and ye dishonor me.” That is, I hono

4. “And I,” said He, “seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth.” Whom does He wish to be understood but the Father? How, then, d

5. In order to solve this point, attend. It may be solved by [quoting] a similar mode of speaking. Thou hast it written, “God tempteth not any man ” a

6. We are to understand, then, that there are two kinds of temptation: one, that deceives the other, that proves. As regards that which deceives, God

7. What then of the two fears? There is a servile fear, and there is a clean [chaste] fear: there is the fear of suffering punishment, there is anothe

8. Therefore, as, according to one kind of temptation, “God tempteth not any man ” but according to another, “The Lord your God tempteth you ” and acc

9. This point may also be solved from the word itself. Thou hast penal judgment spoken of in the Gospel: “He that believeth not is judged already ” an

10. But what sayest Thou, O Lord, of Thyself? “Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” Ye say, “Thou hast

11. Thus spake the Lord (it is scarcely sufficient to say), as one dying to dying men for “to the Lord also belong the issues from death,” as saith t

12. Let us not be frightened at that other death, but let us fear this one. But, what is very grievous, many, through a perverse fear of that other, h

13. But those men, indignant, yet dead, and predestinated to death eternal, answered with insults, and said, “Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abra

14. “Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing: it is my Father that glorifieth me.” He said this on account of their saying, “Whom mak

15. “It is,” then, said He, “my Father that glorifieth me of whom ye say, that He is your God: and ye have not known Him.” See, my brethren, how He s

16. “Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw, and was glad.” Abraham’s seed, Abraham’s Creator, bears a great testimony to Abraham. “Ab

17. The angry Jews replied, “Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” And the Lord: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abra

18. Hence, as if by the most open of all insults thrown at Abraham, they were now excited to greater bitterness. Of a certainty it seemed to them that

2. The Lord came: what did He do? He set forth a great mystery. “He spat on the ground,” He made clay of His spittle for the Word was made flesh. “An

3. And now, because of certain points in the lesson before us, let us run over the words of the Lord, and of the whole lesson itself rather than make

4. And then, what follows? “I must work the works of Him that sent me.” See, here is that sent one [Siloam], wherein the blind man washed his face. An

5. What is that night wherein, when it comes, no one shall be able to work? Hear what the day is, and then thou wilt understand what the night is. But

6. What then? What shall we say of that night? When will it be, when no one shall be able to work? It will be that night of the wicked, that night of

7. “When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and He spread the clay upon his eyes, and said unto him, Go and wash

8. “The neighbors therefore, and those who saw him previously, for he was a beggar, said, Is not this he who sat and begged? Some said, It is he: othe

9. “They brought to the Pharisees him who had been blind. And it was the Sabbath when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes. Then again the Pharise

10. “Therefore the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, till they called the parents of him that recei

11. “Then again called they the man who had been blind, and said unto him, Give God the glory.” What is that, “Give God the glory”? Deny what thou has

12. “They cursed him, and said, Thou art his disciple.” Such a malediction be upon us, and upon our children! For a malediction it is, if thou layest

13. “The man answered and said unto them, Herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we k

14. “They answered and said unto him, Thou wast wholly born in sins.” What means this “wholly”? Even to blindness of the eyes. But He who has opened h

15. But, as I have already said before, brethren, when they expel, the Lord receiveth for the rather that he was expelled, was he made a Christian. “

16. “And Jesus said to him.” Now is He, the day, discerning between the light and the darkness. “For judgment am I come into this world that they who

17. By these words, then, were “some of the Pharisees” disturbed, “and said unto Him, Are we blind also?” Hear now what it is that moved them, “And th

2. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a rob

3. Such, accordingly, for the most part seek to persuade men to live well, and yet not to be Christians. By another way they wish to climb up, to stea

4. What shall I say of such? Look, the Pharisees themselves were in the habit of reading, and in what they read, their voices re-echoed the Christ, th

5. For there are countless numbers who not only boast that they see, but would have it appear that they are enlightened by Christ yet are they hereti

6. Thus far, however, the Lord Jesus speaks in covert language not as yet is He understood. He names the door, He names the sheepfold, He names the s

7. “This parable spake Jesus unto them but they understood not what He spake unto them.” Nor we also, perhaps. What, then, is the difference between

8. Let us begin, then, with hearing His exposition of what we have heard Him propounding. “Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto

9. “But the sheep did not hear them.” This is a more important point, “the sheep did not hear them.” Before the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, when

10. Why is it, then, that I have said, This is a more important point? What is there about it obscure and difficult to understand? Listen, I beseech y

11. That question has been solved in a way, and perhaps satisfies every one. But I bare still a subject of concern, and what concerns me I shall impar

12. You hear, brethren, the great importance of the question. I say then, “The Lord knoweth them that are His.” He knoweth those who were foreknown, H

13. There remains still the question, which I now think may meanwhile thus be solved. There is a voice of some kind,—there is, I say, a certain kind o

14. By this, then, which the Lord hath explained, that He Himself is the door, let us find entrance to what He has set forth, but not explained. And i

15. But what is this, “He shall go in and out, and find pasture”? To enter indeed into the Church by Christ the door, is eminently good but to go out

2. We understand the Lord Christ as the door, and also as the Shepherd but who is to be understood as the doorkeeper? For the former two, He has Hims

3. In respect, then, of the profound nature of this question, I shall tell you what I think: let each one make the choice that pleases him, but let hi

4. Therefore, let us not, brethren, be disturbed in understanding Him, in harmony with certain resemblances, as Himself the door, and also the doorkee

5. But what are we to say of the hireling? He is not mentioned here among the good. “The good Shepherd,” He says, “giveth His life for the sheep. But

6. But give heed to the fact that even the hirelings are needful. For many indeed in the Church are following after earthly profit, and yet preach Chr

7. We have seen who the hireling is also. Who, but the devil, is the wolf? And what was said of the hireling? “When he seeth the wolf coming, he fleet

8. Who is the hireling that seeth the wolf coming, and fleeth? He that seeketh his own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s. He is one that does n

Tractate XLVII.

2. I proceed, then, without more delay. When I seek to get into you, that is, into your heart, I preach Christ: were I preaching something else, I sho

3. And now when He saith, “As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father,” who can be ignorant of His meaning? For He knoweth the Father by Hims

4. But of the one sheepfold and of the one Shepherd, you are now indeed being constantly reminded for we have commended much the one sheepfold, preac

5. But perhaps some one thinks that, as He Himself came not to us, but sent, we have not heard His own voice, but only the voice of those whom He sent

6. For I have said so before, and earnestly pressed it on your notice, and those who comprehend it are wise, yea, those who are wise do comprehend it

7. Hear also what follows. “Therefore doth my Father love me,” He saith, “because I lay down my life, that I might take it again.” What is this that H

8. How can I know, thou wilt say, that mine dieth not? Slay it not thyself, and it cannot die. How, thou asketh, can I slay my soul? To say nothing me

9. How, then, does the Lord lay down His life [soul]? Let us, brethren, inquire into this a little more carefully. The time is not so pressing as is u

10. In what sense, then, did our Lord say here, “I have power to lay down my soul [life]”? Who lays down his soul, and takes it again? Is it as being

11. Let us turn, then, to what is true and easily understood. Take the case of any man, who does not consist of the word and soul and flesh, but only

12. If, then, the flesh laid down its life, how did Christ lay down His life? For the flesh is not Christ. Certainly in this way, that Christ is both

13. Let no one, then, be perplexed, when he hears that the Lord has said, “I lay down my life, and I take it again.” The flesh layeth it down, but by

14. “This commandment,” He says, “have I received of my Father.” The Word received not the commandment in word, but in the only begotten Word of the F

Tractate XLVIII.

2. Listen to the Gospel: “And it was at Jerusalem the Encœnia.” Encoenia was the festival of the dedication of the temple. For in Greek kainos new enc

3. “It was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. Then came the Jews round about Him, and said unto Him, How long dost thou keep o

4. The Jews made this inquiry of Christ, chiefly in order that, should He say, I am Christ, they might, in accordance with the only sense they attache

5. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life.” This is the pasture. If you recollect, He had sai

6. “And they shall never perish:” you may hear the undertone, as if He had said to them, Ye shall perish for ever, because ye are not of my sheep. “No

7. “Out of my hand,” and “out of my Father’s hand.” What is this, “No one plucketh them out of my hand,” and “No one plucketh them out of my Father’s

8. But that there may be no more room for hesitation, hear what follows: “I and my Father are one.” Up to this point the Jews were able to bear Him t

9. But see what answer the Lord gave to their dull apprehension. He saw that they could not bear the brilliance of the truth, and He tempered it with

10. “If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye will not believe me, believe the works that ye may know and believe t

11. “Therefore they sought to apprehend Him.” Would they had apprehended by faith and understanding, not in wrath and murder! For now, my brethren, wh

12. “And He went away again beyond Jordan, into the place where John at first baptized and there He abode. And many resorted unto Him, and said, John

2. We have, however, read in the Gospel of three dead persons who were raised to life by the Lord, and, let us hope, to some good purpose. For surely

3. If, then, the Lord in the greatness of His grace and mercy raiseth our souls to life, that we may not die for ever, we may well understand that tho

4. So then the Lord also raised Lazarus to life. You have heard what type of character he represents in other words, what is meant by the resurrectio

5. “But Mary was she who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent

6. “But when Jesus heard [that], He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified.” Such a glo

7. “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus.” The one sick, the others sad, all of them beloved: but He who loved them was both the S

8. And now see how the disciples were terrified at His words. “The disciples say unto Him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone Thee, and goest Th

9. “And after that He saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.” It was true what He said. To his sis

10. Therefore, to make this the occasion of instructing your Charity, all souls have, when they quit this world, their different receptions. The good

11. “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said His disciples”—according to their understanding they replied—

12. “Nevertheless, let us go unto him. Then said Thomas, who is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with Him. T

13. “And many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was comi

14. “Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.” This was ambiguous. For He said not, Even now I will raise thy brother but, “Thy brother sh

15. “He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” What meaneth this? “H

16. “And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister silently, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee.” It is worthy

17. “As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto Him. For Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was still in that place where Mart

18. “Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw Him, she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had n

19. I have spoken of the power: look now to the meaning. It is a great criminal that is signified by that four days’ death and burial. Why is it, then

20. “And He said, Where have ye laid him?” Thou knewest that he was dead, and art Thou ignorant of the place of his burial? The meaning here is, that

21. “Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how He loved him!” “Loved him,” what does that mean? “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to rep

22. “Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself, cometh to the tomb.” May His groaning have thee also for its object, if thou wouldst re-enter into lif

23. “Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto Him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been [dead] four days. Jesus saith unto her,

24. “Then they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank Thee, that Thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou heares

25. “Then many of the Jews who had come to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees

26. “Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we?” But they did not say, Let us believe. For these abandoned men

27. “And one of them, [named] Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedien

28. “Then, from that day forth, they took counsel together for to put Him to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews but went the

2. “And the Jews’ passover was nigh at hand.” The Jews wished to have that feast-day crimsoned with the blood of the Lord. On it that Lamb was slain,

3. “Then sought they for Jesus:” but with evil intent. For happy are they who seek for Jesus in a way that is good. They sought for Him, with the inte

4. “Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that, if any man knew where He were, he should show it, that they might take Him.

5. “Then Jesus, six days before the passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was who had been dead, whom Jesus raised from the dead. And there they ma

6. But “Mary,” the other sister of Lazarus, “took a pound of ointment of pure nard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet

7. “And the house was filled with the odor.” The world is filled with the fame of a good character: for a good character is as a pleasant odor. Those

8. And who is it, says some one, that is thus slain by the sweet savor? It is to this the apostle alludes in the words, “And who is sufficient for the

9. And now, lastly, listen to what we have here, how this ointment was to some a sweet savor unto life, and to others a sweet savor unto death. When t

10. Look now, and learn that this Judas did not become perverted only at the time when he yielded to the bribery of the Jews and betrayed his Lord. Fo

11. Lay to heart our Lord’s example while living with man upon earth. Why had He a money bag, who was ministered unto by angels, save to intimate that

12. But what follows? “For the poor ye have always with you, but me ye will not have always.” We can certainly understand, “the poor ye have always ”

13. It may be also understood in this way: “The poor ye will have always with you, but me ye will not have always.” The good may take it also as addre

14. Let us listen to the other few points that remain: “Much people of the Jews therefore knew that He was there: and they came not for Jesus’ sake on

2. For the Gospel, the reading of which you have just been listening to, says: “On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they hea

3. But when it is said, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, [as] the King of Israel,” by “in the name of the Lord” we are rather to un

4. These, then, were the words of praise addressed to Jesus by the multitude, “Hosanna: blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord, the King of

5. “And Jesus, when He had found a young ass, sat thereon.” Here the account is briefly given: for how it all happened may be found at full length in

6. “These things understood not His disciples at the first but when Jesus was glorified,” that is, when He had manifested the power of His resurrecti

7. “The people, therefore, that was with Him when He called Lazarus out of his tomb, and raised him from the dead, bare record. For this cause the cro

8. “And there were certain Gentiles among them that had come up to worship at the feast: the same came therefore to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Ga

9. But the height of His glorification had to be preceded by the depth of His passion. Accordingly, He went on to add, “Verily, verily, I say unto you

10. And now, by way of exhortation to follow in the path of His own passion, He adds, “He that loveth his life shall lose it,” which may be understood

11. “If any man serve me, let him follow me.” What is that, “let him follow me,” but just, let him imitate me? “Because Christ suffered for us,” says

12. But it becomes us rather to inquire what is to be understood by this serving of Christ to which there is attached so great a reward. For if we hav

13. Accordingly, brethren, when you hear the Lord saying, “Where I am, there shall also my servant be,” do not think merely of good bishops and clergy

2. I hear Him saying a little before, “The hour cometh that the Son of man should be glorified: if a corn of wheat die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

3. In a word, let the man who would follow learn the road by which he must travel. Perhaps an hour of terrible trial has come, and the choice is set b

4. “Then came there a voice from heaven, [saying], I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” “I have both glorified it,” before I created

5. “The people therefore that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to Him. Jesus answered and said, This voice

6. Look at what follows: “Now,” He says, “is the judgment of the world.” What, then, are we to expect at the end of time? But the judgment that is loo

7. Attend, in short, to His own words. For just as if we had been inquiring what He meant by saying, “Now is the judgment of the world,” He proceeded

8. But some one says, Was he then not cast out of the hearts of the patriarchs and prophets, and the righteous of olden time? Certainly he was. How, t

9. But then, says some one, since the devil is thus cast out of the hearts of believers, does he now tempt none of the faithful? Nay, verily, he does

10. On the other hand, let us be far from supposing that the devil is called in any such way the prince of the world, as that we should believe him po

11. Accordingly, after saying, “Now shall the prince of this world be cast out,” He added, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all thi

12. “The people answered Him, We have heard out of the law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest Thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? And wh

13. “Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little light is in you.” And by this it is you understand that Christ abideth for ever. “Walk, then, while ye ha

14. “These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide Himself from them.” Not from those who had begun to believe and to love Him, nor from those

2. The evangelist thereafter brings forward what has formed the brief subject of to-day’s reading, and says, “But though He had done so many miracles

3. When, therefore, we hear that the Son of God is the arm of God the Father, let no carnal custom raise its distracting din in our ears but as far a

4. And here we meet with the second question, to treat of which, indeed, in any adequate manner, to investigate all its mysterious windings, and throw

5. But the words of the Gospel also, that follow, are still more pressing, and start a question of more profound import: for He goes on to say, “There

6. Such, as you have just heard, brethren, is the question that comes before us, and you can perceive how profound it is but we shall give what answe

7. Let not then, brethren, the expectations of your Charity drive me to attempt the task of penetrating into such a deep, of sounding such an abyss, o

8. If, however, any one considers himself able, and has confidence enough, to give a clearer and better exposition of the question before us, God forb

9. It is no wonder, then, that they could not believe, when such was their pride of will, that, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, they wishe

10. And, look you! so also say I, that those who have such lofty ideas of themselves as to suppose that so much must be attributed to the powers of th

11. But when he added, “And they should be converted, and I should heal them,” is there a “not” to be understood, that is, they should not be converte

12. “These things said Isaiah, when he saw His glory, and spake of Him.” What Isaiah saw, and how it refers to Christ the Lord, are to be read and lea

13. “Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on Him but, because of the Pharisees, they did not confess Him, lest they should be put o

2. While matters were in this state, and His own passion was now at hand, “Jesus cried, and said,” as our lesson to-day commences, “He that believeth

3. And, accordingly, after saying, “He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on Him that sent me,” that it might not be thought that He would

4. Attend to what follows: “I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.” He said in a certain place

5. “And if any man,” He says, “hear my words, and keep them not, I judge him not.” Remember what I know you have heard in former lessons and if any o

6. But see also what He says of that future judgment in the end: “He that despiseth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the wor

7. “For I have not,” He says, “spoken of myself.” He says that He has not spoken of Himself, because He is not of Himself. Of this we have frequently

8. There follow the words: “And I know that His commandment is life everlasting.” If, then, the Son Himself is eternal life, and the Father’s commandm

2. “When Jesus knew,” then, “that His hour was come that He should pass out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world,

3. “And the supper,” he says, “having taken place, and the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him, [Jesus]

4. But when he says, “The devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him ” if one inquires, what was put into Judas

5. “[Jesus] knowing that the Father has given all things into His hands.” And therefore also the traitor himself: for if He had him not in His hands,

6. Knowing, then, these things, “He riseth from supper, and layeth aside His garments and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poureth wat

7. But why should we wonder that He rose from supper, and laid aside His garments, who, being in the form of God, made Himself of no reputation? And w

2. But “Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.” And not even yet, terrified as he was by the

3. “Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.” Some one perhaps may be aroused at this, and sa

4. But what is this? what does it mean? and what is there in it we need to examine? The Lord says, The Truth declares that even he who has been washed

5. Accordingly the Church, which Christ cleanseth with the washing of water in the word, is without spot and wrinkle, not only in the case of those wh

2. For thus she speaks: “I sleep, but my heart waketh: it is the voice of my Beloved that knocketh at the gate.” And then He also says: “Open to me, m

3. Therefore, as the Apostle James saith, “Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak.” As it is also said by another man of God, “Thou wilt make m

4. But while the Church finds delightful repose in those who thus sweetly and humbly sit at her feet, here is one who knocks, and says: “What I tell y

5. Hence it happens that those who love to devote their leisure to good studies, and shrink from encountering the troubles of toilsome labors, as feel

6. And then, turning again to those who preach, and gather in and govern the congregations of His people, and so open as they can to Christ, but are a

Tractate LVIII.

2. “So, after He had washed their feet, and had taken His garments, and was set down again, He said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?” Now i

3. “Ye call me,” He says, “Master and Lord: and ye say well for so I am.” “Ye say well,” for ye only say the truth I am indeed what ye say. There is

4. “If I, then,” He says, “your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, tha

5. But apart from this moral understanding of the passage, we remember that the way in which we commended to your attention the grandeur of this act o

2. He then proceeds to say: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send, receiveth me and he that receiveth me, receiveth Hi

3. But now that the heretical slander has been disposed of, in what sense are we to understand these words of the Lord: “He that receiveth whomsoever

2. He was troubled, then, who had power to lay down His life, and had power to take it again. That mighty power is troubled, the firmness of the rock

3. Away with the reasons of philosophers, who assert that a wise man is not affected by mental perturbations. God hath made foolish the wisdom of this

4. But says some one: Ought the mind of the Christian to be troubled even at the prospect of death? For what comes of those words of the apostle, that

5. Strong-minded, indeed, are those Christians, if such there are, who experience no trouble at all in the prospect of death but for all that, are th

2. “Jesus,” therefore, “was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said: Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.” “One of you

3. “Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom He spake.” For while they were imbued with a reverential love to their Master, they wer

4. “Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom, one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.” What he meant by saying “in His bosom,” he tells us a little furth

5. But what mean the words, “whom Jesus loved”? As if He did not love the others, of whom this same John has said above, “He loved them to the end” (v

6. “Simon Peter therefore beckons, and says to him.” The expression is noteworthy, as indicating that something was said not by any sound of words, bu

2. It was after this bread, then, that Satan entered into the Lord’s betrayer, that, as now given over to his power, he might take full possession of

3. But it was not then, as some thoughtless readers suppose, that Judas received the body of Christ. For we are to understand that the Lord had alread

4. But still, possessed as Judas now was, not by the Lord, but by the devil, and now that the bread had entered the belly, and an enemy the soul of th

5. “Now no one of those at the table knew for what intent He spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the money-bag, that Jesu

6. “He then, having received the morsel of bread, went immediately out: and it was night.” And he that went out was himself the night. “Therefore when

Tractate LXIII.

2. What is it, then, that the Lord says, after that Judas went out, to do quickly what he purposed doing, namely, betraying the Lord? What says the da

3. But after saying, “Now is the Son of man glorified,” He added, “and God is glorified in Him.” For this is itself the glorifying of the Son of man,

2. There is also another form of His divine presence unknown to mortal senses, of which He likewise says, “Lo, I am with you alway, even to the end of

3. That no one, however, may deem that sense inconsistent with the true one, in which we say that the Lord may have meant the communion of mortal fles

4. “Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come so say I to you now.” That is, ye cannot come now . But when He said

2. Think not then, my brethren, that when the Lord says, “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another,” there is any overlooking of th

3. “By this,” He adds, “Shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another:” as if He said, Other gifts of mine are possessed

2. Or was it that the Apostle Peter, as some with a perverse kind of favor strive to excuse him, did not deny Christ, because, when questioned by the

Tractate LXVII.

2. But why have we this that follows, “In my Father’s house are many mansions,” but that they were also in fear about themselves? And therein they mig

3. Every Christian heart, therefore, must utterly reject the idea of those who imagine that there are many mansions spoken of, because there will be s

4. “And if I go,” He says, “and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also. And wh

Tractate LXVIII.

2. But He is in a certain sense preparing the dwellings by preparing for them the dwellers. As, for instance, when He said, “In my Father’s house are

3. But why is it that He went away to make such preparation, when, as it is certainly we ourselves that are the subjects in need of preparation, His d

2. What is it, then, that we also have not apprehended in this discourse? What else, think you, brethren, but just that He said, “And whither I go ye

3. Tell me, O my Lord, what to say to Thy servants, my fellow-servants. The Apostle Thomas had Thee before him in order to ask Thee questions, and yet

4. Take an example, very different in character and wholly inadequate, yet in some lit tle measure helpful to the understanding of God, from things th

2. Connecting, therefore, His previous words with those that follow, He proceeded to say, “If ye had known me, ye should certainly have known my Fathe

3. Why, then, Philip, dost thou say, “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us? Have I been so long time with you, and yet have ye not known me, Philip

2. For in connection with these two clauses,—the one where it is said, “I speak not of myself ” and the other, which runs, “but the Father that dwelle

3. But what is this that follows? “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also and greater works th

Tractate LXXII.

2. But there is still something to excite thought in His doing such greater works by the apostles for He said not, as if merely with reference to the

3. “And greater works than these shall he do.” Than what, pray? Shall we say that one is doing greater works than all that Christ did who is working o

Tractate LXXIII.

2. How, then, are we to understand “Whatsoever ye shall ask, I will do it,” if there are some things which the faithful ask, and which God, even purpo

3. Wake up, then, believer, and give careful heed to what is stated here, “ in my name :” for in these words He does not say, “whatsoever ye shall ask

4. There are some things, indeed, which, although really asked in His name, that is, in harmony with His character as both Saviour and Master, He doet

Tractate LXXIV.

2. We are therefore to understand that he who loves has already the Holy Spirit, and by what he has becomes worthy of a fuller possession, that by hav

3. But when John the Baptist said, “For God giveth not the Spirit by measure,” he was speaking exclusively of the Son of God, who received not the Spi

4. But when He says, “I will ask the Father, and He shall give you another Paraclete,” He intimates that He Himself is also a paraclete. For paraclete

5. “But ye,” He adds, “shall know Him for He shall dwell with you, and be in you.” He will be in them, that He may dwell with them He will not dwell

2. He then goes on to say, “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more.” How so? the world saw Him then for under the name of the world are t

3. What is meant by the words, “Because I live, ye shall live also”? Why did He speak in the present tense of His own living, and in the future of the

4. “In that day,” He says, “ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” In what day, but in that whereof He said, “Ye shall liv

5. “He that hath my commmandments,” He adds, “and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me.” He that hath [them] in his memory, and keepeth them in his l

Tractate LXXVI.

2. “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abo

3. We have now, therefore, to understand, so far as He is pleased to unfold it, the meaning of the words, “Yet a little while, and the world seeth me

4. But further, lest any should imagine that the Father and Son only, without the Holy Spirit, make their abode with those that love Them, let him rec

5. But when He added, “And the saying which ye have heard is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me,” let us not be filled with wonder or fear: He is

Tractate LXXVII.

2. “But the Comfort,” He adds, “[which is] the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things t

3. “Peace,” He said, “I leave with you, my peace I give unto you.” It is here we read in the prophet, “Peace upon peace:” peace He leaves with us when

4. But why is it that, when He said, “Peace I leave with you,” He did not add, “my ” but when He said, “I give unto you,” He there made use of it? Is

5. But when the Lord proceeded to say, “Not as the world giveth, give I unto you,” what else does He mean but, Not as those give who love the world, g

Tractate LXXVIII.

2. Let the Arian attend to this, and find healing in his attention that wrangling may not lead to vanity, or, what is worse, to insanity. For it is t

3. May our Lord and Master bring home clearly to our minds the words, “If ye loved me, ye would surely rejoice, because I go unto the Father for the

Tractate LXXIX.

2. But what says He next? “Hereafter I will not talk much with you for the prince of this world cometh ” and who is that, but the devil? “And hath no

2. “I am,” He says, “the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away and every one that bea

3. “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Why does He not say, Ye are clean through the baptism wherewith ye have been washe

Tractate LXXXI.

2. And then He proceeds to say: “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” A gre

3. Ponder again and again what the Truth has still further to say: “I am the vine,” He adds, “ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him

4. “If ye abide in me,” He says, “and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” For abiding thus in Christ, is

Tractate LXXXII.

2. “As the Father hath loved me,” He says, “so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.” Here, then, you see, is the source of our good works. For wh

3. “Continue ye,” He says, “in my love.” How shall we continue? Listen to what follows: “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.” Love

4. But what are we to make of that which follows: “Even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love”? Here also He certainly intend

Tractate LXXXIII.

2. “This,” He says, “is my injunction, that ye love one another, as I have loved you.” Whether we call it injunction or commandment, both are the rend

3. But when He said in this way here, “This is my commandment,” as if there were none else, what are we to think, my brethren? Is, then, the commandme

Tractate LXXXIV.

2. But let us not be supposed to have so spoken as if on such grounds we might possibly arrive at an equality with Christ the Lord, if for His sake we

Tractate LXXXV.

2. But let us mark what follows. “Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth.” How, then are we to understand

3. Let us, brethren, let us understand, and may the Lord enable us to understand, and enable us also to do what we understand. And if we know this, we

Tractate LXXXVI.

2. “Ye have not chosen me,” He says, “but I have chosen you.” Grace such as that is ineffable. For what were we so long as Christ had not yet chosen u

3. See then, beloved, how it is that He chooseth not the good, but maketh those whom He has chosen good. “I have chosen you,” He saith, “and appointed

Tractate LXXXVII.

2. But alongside of this love we ought also patiently to endure the hatred of the world. For it must of necessity hate those whom it perceives recoili

3. But that world which God is in Christ reconciling unto Himself, which is saved by Christ, and has all its sins freely pardoned by Christ, has been

4. But if we are asked about the love which is borne to itself by that world of perdition which hateth the world of redemption we reply, it loveth it

Tractate LXXXVIII.

2. “But all these things,” He says, “will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not Him that sent me.” And what are “all these things

3. But some one says, If, when the wicked persecute the good for the name of Christ, the good suffer for righteousness’ sake, then surely it is for ri

4. It may also be inquired, if the wicked also persecute the wicked, just as ungodly princes and judges, while they were the persecutors of the godly,

Tractate LXXXIX.

2. But when He went on to say, “But now they have no excuse for their sin,” some may be moved to inquire whether those to whom Christ neither came nor

3. It remains for us to inquire, whether those who, prior to the coming of Christ in His Church to the Gentiles and to their hearing of His Gospel, ha

4. But it is also a worthy subject of inquiry, whether those who met the words they heard with contempt, and even with opposition, and that not merely

5. “He that hateth me,” He says, “hateth my Father also.” Here it may be said to us, Who can hate one whom he knows not? And certainly before saying,

2. But in such cases our credulity is frequently at fault for sometimes even history, and still more ordinary report, turns out to be false. Yet, it

3. But amid all these darknesses of human hearts, it happens as a thing much to be wondered at and mourned over, that one, whom we account unjust, and

2. But what is meant when, after saying, “If I had not done among them works,” He immediately added, “which none other man did”? Of a certainty, among

3. I pass by other examples, as these I consider to be sufficient to show that some of the saints have done wonderful works, which none other man did.

4. The works, then, are doubtless those miracles of healing in connection with their bodily complaints which He exhibited to such an extent as no one

2. “And ye also,” He says, “shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.” The Holy Spirit shall bear witness, and so also shal

Tractate XCIII.

2. And then He expressly declares what they were to suffer: “They shall put you out of the synagogues.” But what harm was it for the apostles to be ex

3. Finally, to what He had thus told them, He added the words: “But the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service:

4. Such, then, is the meaning of these words: “They will put you out of the synagogues ” but have no fear of solitude: inasmuch as, when separated fro

2. The Comforter then, or Advocate (for both form the interpretation of the Greek word, paraclete), had become necessary on Christ’s departure: and th

3. “But now I go my way to Him that sent me and none of you,” He says, “asketh me, Whither goest Thou?” He means that His departure would be such tha

4. “But because I have said these things unto you,” He adds, “sorrow hath filled your heart.” He saw, indeed, what effect these words of His were prod

5. But with Christ’s bodily departure, both the Father and the Son, as well as the Holy Spirit, were spiritually present with them. For had Christ dep

6. But that which follows, “And when He is come, He will convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, indeed, because the

2. He next explains what He has said “of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.” “Of sin indeed,” He says, “because they have believed not on me.

3. But how are we to understand, “Ye shall see me no more”? For He saith not, I go to the Father, and ye shall not see me, so as to be understood as r

4. He will also reprove it “of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.” Who is this, save he of whom He saith in another place, “Behold,

2. Well, then, let us grant that it is so, that many can now bear those things when the Holy Spirit has been sent, which could not then, prior to His

3. But it seems to me also very absurd to say that the disciples could not then have borne what we find recorded, about things invisible and of profou

4. Wherefore, beloved, you need not expect to hear from us what the Lord then refrained from telling His disciples, because they were still unable to

5. As these things are so, beloved, I warn you in the love of Christ to beware of impure seducers and sects of obscene filthiness, whereof the apostle

Tractate XCVII.

2. Accordingly, as I have admonished you in my last sermon, take heed, those of you specially who are still children and have need of a milk diet, of

3. Hence the system of magical arts commends its nefarious rites to those who are deceived, or ready to be so, by a sacrilegious curiosity. Hence, als

4. It is such whom the apostle foresaw through the Holy Spirit, when he said: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but af

5. But some one will say, Have spiritual men nothing in the matter of doctrine, which they are to say nothing about to the carnal, but to speak out up

Tractate XCVIII.

2. In the first place, then, your Charity ought to know that it is Christ Himself as crucified, wherewith the apostle says that he has fed those who a

3. Having ascertained this, therefore, at the outset, that the very things, which are equally heard by the spiritual and the carnal, are received by e

4. But the question is still further raised by what we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews: “When now for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have nee

5. But to those who are still babes in mind, and who as carnal, the apostle says, require to be nourished with milk, all discoursing on such a subject

6. But let us be far from supposing that there is any contrariety between this milk and the food of spiritual things that has to be received by the so

7. And since this is the case, do you, whoever you be, who are doubtless many of you still babes in Christ, be making advances towards the solid food

8. Accordingly, when the Lord says, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now,” He means that what they were still ignorant

2. For the fact that the Holy Spirit appeared in bodily form, as a dove, was a sight begun and ended at the time: just as also, when He descended upon

3. You ought, then, to be informed in the first place, and, those of you who can, to understand, and the others, who cannot as yet understand, to beli

4. Nor need you wonder that the ineffable knowledge of God, whereby He is cognizant of all things, is, because of the various modes of human speech de

5. And be not disturbed by the fact that the verb is put in the future tense. For it is not said, whatsoever He hath heard, or, whatsoever He heareth

6. Some one may here inquire whether the Holy Spirit proceedeth also from the Son. For the Son is Son of the Father alone, and the Father is Father of

7. And for no other reason, I suppose, is He called in a peculiar way the Spirit since though asked concerning each person in His turn, we cannot but

8. If, then, the Holy Spirit proceedeth both from the Father and from the Son, why said the Son, “He proceedeth from the Father”? Why, do you think, b

9. In connection with this, we come also to some understanding of the further point, that is, so far as it can be understood by such beings as ourselv

2. But there is also a false glory, when the praise given is the result of a mistake, whether in regard to things or to persons, or to both. For men a

3. But that is not a true glory which He has among heretics, with whom, nevertheless, He appears to have a generally accepted fame accompanied with pr

4. But when He says, “He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you,” listen thereto with Catholic ears, and receive it with Catholic minds. Fo

2. “Now Jesus knew,” as the evangelist proceeds to say, “that they were desirous to ask Him, and said unto them, Ye inquire among yourselves of that I

3. And then He goes on to say, “A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, sh

4. Hitherto in this section of the Gospel, whereon we are discoursing to-day, the tenor of everything has been, I may say, of easy understanding: a mu

5. For I think that His words, “But I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you,” are not to be referred t

6. On this point, also, in reference to what has been said above, I think we may get a still better understanding of the words, “A little while, and y

2. “Hitherto,” He says, “ye have not asked anything in my name. Ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.” This that He calls a full joy i

3. “These things,” said He, “have I spoken to you in proverbs: but the hour cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall show

4. It remains, therefore, for us, so far as my capacity to apprehend it goes, to understand Jesus as having promised that He would cause His disciples

5. “For the Father Himself,” He says, “loveth you, because ye have loved me.” Is it the case, then, that He loveth, because we love or rather, that w

6. “And ye have believed,” He adds, “that I came out from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again I leave the world, and

2. And still further admonishing them of their age as still small and infirm in regard to the inner man, “Jesus answered them: Do ye now believe? Beho

3. And then, in bringing to a close this weighty and protracted discourse, He said, “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have pea

2. When, therefore, He had told them on what account He had spoken all things, namely, that in Him they might have peace while having distress in the

3. The glorification of the Son by the Father is understood by some to consist in this, that He spared Him not, but delivered Him up for us all. But i

2. And then expanding still further how it was that the Father should be glorified by the Son, He says: “As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh,

3. “And this,” He adds, “is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” The proper order of the

4. But God is first of all glorified here, while He is being made known to men by word of mouth, and preached through the faith of believers. Wherefor

5. In a way similar, also, to this, He proceeds to say: “And now, O Father, glorify thou me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee b

6. But this predestination He still more clearly disclosed in respect of His own glorification, wherewith He was glorified by the Father, when He adde

7. But to this opinion, which I certainly do not see to be conformable to the truth, there is nothing to urge us, if, when the Son says, “And now, O F

8. But perhaps we shall have some fear in saying that He was predestinated, because the apostle seems to have said so only in reference to our being m

2. But what follows makes it more credible that His words, “I have manifested Thy name to the men whom Thou gavest me out of the world,” were spoken b

3. From the very outset, therefore, of His prayer, when “He lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come glorify Thy Son, that Th

4. Accordingly, let us now see what He says about those disciples of His who were then listening to Him. “I have manifested,” He says, “Thy name unto

5. But what are we to make of the words, “Whom Thou gavest me out of the world”? For it is said of them that they were not of the world. But this they

6. He proceeds to say, “And they have kept Thy word: now they have known that all things, whatsoever Thou hast given me, are of Thee ” that is, they h

7. But what human language will suffice to explain how the Father gave those words to the Son? The question, of course, will appear easier if we suppo

2. And then He adds, “For they are Thine.” For the Father did not lose those whom He gave, in the act of giving them to the Son since the Son still g

3. He proceeds: “And I am glorified in them.” He now speaks of His glorification as already accomplished, although it was still future while a little

4. “And now,” He adds, “I am no more in the world, and these are in the world.” If your thoughts turn to the very hour in which He was speaking, both

5. Accordingly He commends to the Father’s care those whom He was about to leave by His bodily absence, saying: “Holy Father, keep through Thine own n

6. But here He proceeds: “While I was with them, I kept them in Thy name.” Since I am coming, He says, to Thee, keep them in Thy name, in which I myse

7. The Son therefore goes on to say: “Those that Thou gavest me, I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition that the Scripture m

8. “And now,” He says, “come I to Thee and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” See! He says that H

Tractate CVIII.

2. “I pray not,” He adds, “that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” For they still accounted

3. Finally, He proceeds, and doing so fails not to suggest the same with increasing clearness: “Thy speech (sermo) is truth.” What else did He mean th

4. But now He still goes on to speak of the apostles, for He proceeds to add, “As Thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into

5. But since, on the ground that the Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, has become Head of the Church, they are His members therefor

2. In this prayer, therefore, Jesus may seem to have omitted praying for some of His own, unless we carefully examine His words in the prayer itself.

3. We are therefore to understand that their faith in Him was not yet such as He wished it to be, inasmuch as even Peter himself, to whom, on making t

4. But we have still in reserve for the further solution of this question the blessed apostle, and that robber who was a villain in wickedness, but a

5. Accordingly it remains that if we are to believe that the Lord Jesus, in this prayer, prayed for all of His own who either then were or should ther

2. But then after saying, “That they also may be one in us,” He added, “That the world may believe that Thou hast sent me.” What does He mean by this?

3. Furthermore, our Saviour in thus praying to the Father showed Himself to be man while He now also shows that He Himself, as being God along with t

4. And then He added: “I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.” Here He briefly intimated Himself as the Mediator between God

5. In close relation to these come also His further words: “And Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me.” That is to say, in the Son the Father lov

6. The love, therefore, wherewith God loveth, is incomprehensible and immutable. For it was not from the time that we were reconciled unto Him by the

7. Nevertheless there are not wanting some who place us likewise before the angels because, they say, Christ died for us and not for angels. But what

2. But as we have already, in a way proportionate to the brevity of our discourse, spoken of the objects of the promise, and of its own stability let

3. Let no one disturb the clearness of the meaning by any cloudy contradiction but let what follows furnish its testimony to the words that precede.

4. How, then, shall we not be with Christ where He is, when we shall be with Him in the Father in whom He is? On this, also, the apostle is not withou

5. “O righteous Father,” He saith, “the world hath not known Thee.” Just because Thou art righteous it hath not known Thee. It is as that world which

6. “And I have made known to them,” He says, “Thy name, and will make it known.” I have made it known by faith, I will make it known by sight: I have

2. “Judas also,” he says, “who betrayed Him, knew the place for Jesus oft-times resorted thither with His disciples.” There, accordingly, the wolf, c

3. “Jesus, therefore,” as the evangelist proceeds to say, “knowing all things that should come upon Him, went forth and saith unto them, Whom seek ye?

4. “Then asked He them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am [He]. If therefore ye seek me,

5. “Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. And the servant’s name was Malchus.” Th

6. “Then the cohort, and the tribune, and the officers of the Jews, took Jesus, and bound Him.” They took Him to whom they had never found access: for

Tractate CXIII.

2. “But Jesus was followed,” he says, “by Simon Peter, and another disciple.” Who that other disciple is, we cannot affirm with confidence, because it

3. “And the servants and officers stood beside the fire of burning coals, for it was cold, and warmed themselves.” Though it was not winter, it was co

4. “And when He had thus spoken, one of the officers who stood by gave Jesus a blow with his open hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? Jes

5. But let us return to what follows in the Gospel narrative. “And Annas sent Him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest.” To him, according to Matthew’s

6. But the evangelist, after saying that Annas sent Him bound unto Caiaphas, returns to the place of his narrative, where he had left Peter, in order

2. “And it was morning and they themselves,” that is, those who brought Jesus, “went not into the judgment hall,” to wit, into that part of the house

3. “Pilate then went out unto them, and said, What accusation bring ye against this man? They answered and said unto him, If he were not a malefactor,

4. “Then said Pilate unto them, Take ye him, and judge him according to your law. The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any

5. But when the evangelist John adds, “That the saying of Jesus might be fulfilled, which He spake, signifying what death He should die:” if we would

2. Hear then, ye Jews and Gentiles hear, O circumcision hear, O uncircumcision hear, all ye kingdoms of the earth: I interfere not with your govern

3. “Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king.” Not that He was afraid to confess Himself a k

4. Thereafter He adds, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.”** Whence it is e

5. “Pilate said unto Him, What is truth?” Nor did he wait to hear the answer but “when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and said un

2. “Pilate went forth again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring him forth, that ye may know that I find no fault in him. Then came Jesus forth, wear

3. “When the chief priests, therefore, and attendants saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them Take ye him and cr

4. “When Pilate, therefore, heard that saying, he was the more afraid and entered again into the judgment hall, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art thou

5. “Then saith Pilate unto Him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee? Jesus a

6. “Hence Pilate sought to release Him.” What is to be understood by the word here used, “hence,” as if he had not been seeking to do so before? Read

7. “But the Jews cried out, saying, If thou let this man go, thou art not Cæsar’s friend: whosoever maketh himself a king, speaketh against Cæsar.” Th

8. As yet, however, the evangelist proceeds to say: “But when Pilate heard these sayings, he brought Jesus forth, and sat down before the tribunal, in

9. For “the chief priests answered, We have no king but Cæsar. Then delivered he Him therefore unto them to be crucified.” For he would have every app

Tractate CXVII.

2. There is also another solution of this question, that we should not here understand the sixth hour of the day, because John says not, And it was ab

3. “And they took Jesus,” he says, “and led Him away and He, bearing His cross, went forth unto the place that is called Calvary, in the Hebrew, Golg

4. “And Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross, and the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. This title then read many of

5. “Then said the chief priests of the Jews unto Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews but that he said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, Wh

Tractate CXVIII.

2. But we must not speak in a mere cursory way of the partition and dividing by lot of His garments. For although all the four evangelists make mentio

3. For Matthew, in saying, “They parted His garments, casting lots,” wished it to be understood, that in the whole affair of parting the garments, the

4. Some one, perhaps, may inquire what is signified by the division that was made of His garments into so many parts, and of the casting of lots for t

5. And yet let no one say that such things had no good signification because they were done by the bad, that is to say, not by those who followed Chri

2. A passage, therefore, of a moral character is here inserted. The good Teacher does what He thereby reminds us ought to be done, and by His own exam

3. But what was this “his own,” unto which John took the mother of the Lord? For he was not outside the circle of those who said unto Him, “Lo, we hav

4. He then adds: “After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there w

5. Nor need we be disturbed with the question, how the sponge could be applied to His mouth when He was lifted up from the earth on the cross. For as

6. “When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished.” What, but all that prophecy had foretold so long before? And then, becaus

2. “Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with Him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that He

3. “And he that saw it,” he says, “bare record, and his record is true and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye also might believe.” He said not, T

4. “And after this, Joseph of Arimathea (being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews) besought Pilate that he might take away the bod

5. “Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.” As in the womb of

6. “And on the first of the week came Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and saw the stone taken away from the sepulchre.

7. “Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre. So they ran both together: and that other disciple did outrun Pete

8. “And he stooping down,” he says, “saw the linen clothes lying yet went he not in. Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulch

9. “Then went in also that other disciple who had come first to the sepulchre.” He came first, and entered last. This also of a certainty is not witho

2. Lastly, “when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why

3. “Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and

4. “Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and He hath spoken these things unto me. Then the same day at evening, being the

5. “But Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen

Tractate CXXII.

2. The inquiry is usually made in connection with this fishing of the disciples, why Peter and the sons of Zebedee returned to what they were before b

3. We have therefore to give those who are disturbed by this the answer, that they were not prohibited from seeking necessary sustenance by their manu

4. But some one will reply, And why did he not find them, when the Lord had promised, saying, “Seek first the kingdom and righteousness of God, and al

5. “Simon Peter,” therefore, “saith, I go a fishing.” Those who were with him “say unto him, We also go with thee. And they went forth, and entered in

6. This is a great mystery in the great Gospel of John and to commend it the more forcibly to our attention, the last chapter has been made its place

7. That, however, is a parable in word, not one embodied in outward action and just as in the passage before us the Lord indicated by an outward acti

8. For if we determine on the number that should indicate the law, what else can it be but ten? For we have absolute certainty that the Decalogue of t

9. It was not, then, without a purpose that these fishes were described as so many in number, and so large in size, that is, as both an hundred and fi

Tractate CXXIII.

2. “And Jesus cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise.” We are likewise told here, you see, on what they dined and of this dinne

3. “This was now,” he says, “the third time that Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after that He was risen from the dead.” And this we are to refe

4. “So when they had dined, He saith to Simon Peter, Simon, [son] of John, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord Thou knowest

5. But first the Lord asks what He knew, and that not once, but a second and a third time, whether Peter loved Him and just as often He has the same

Tractate CXXIV.

2. But let any one who so listeth still refuse his assent, and declare that what John asserts is true enough, that the Lord said not that that discipl

3. Meanwhile let us yield to the opinion, which we are unable to refute by any certain evidence, lest we stir up still another question that may be pu

4. And who, besides, would not be disposed, in the case of these two apostles, Peter and John, to make this further inquiry, why the Lord loved John b

5. I shall therefore, in the manifested mercy of Him whose justice is hidden, set about the discussion, in order to the solution of a question of such

6. But by this line of argument we have shown why Christ loved John more than Peter, not why Peter loved Christ more than John. For if Christ loveth u

7. Let no one, however, separate these distinguished apostles. In that which was signified by Peter, they were both alike and in that which was signi

8. “This is the disciple who testifieth of these things, and wrote these things and we know that his testimony is true. And there are also,” he adds,

4. What shall I say of such? Look, the Pharisees themselves were in the habit of reading, and in what they read, their voices re-echoed the Christ, they hoped He would come, and recognized Him not when present; they boasted, even they, of being amongst those who saw, that is, among the wise, and they disowned the Christ, and entered not in by the door. Therefore would such also, if they chanced to seduce any, seduce them to be slaughtered and murdered, not to be brought into liberty. Let us leave these also to themselves, and look at those who glory in the name of Christ Himself, and see whether even they perchance are entering in by the door.

4. Quid de istis dicam? Ecce ipsi Pharisaei legebant, et in eo quod legebant, Christum sonabant, venturum sperabant, et praesentem non agnoscebant: jactabant se etiam ipsi inter videntes, hoc est inter sapientes, et negabant Christum, et non intrabant per ostium. Ergo et ipsi, si quos forte seducerent, mactandos et occidendos, non liberandos seducerent. Et hos dimittamus: videamus illos si forte ipsi intrant per ostium, qui ipsius Christi nomine gloriantur.