THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS WRITINGS - VOLUME 73
Cyril of Alexandria: The Gospel of John, Books 1 to 5
c. AD 425

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INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME
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HOW THIS BOOK IS ARRANGED

This is the seventy-third volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church
in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This
volume holds Cyril of Alexandria, The Gospel of John, Books 1 to 5, from the period about
AD 425.

Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any
passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section
numbers.

THE TRANSLATIONS

The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for
SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation.
In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been
altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the
back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. All the
works in this volume are printed in older public-domain translations.

IN THIS VOLUME

Cyril was patriarch of Alexandria from AD 412 until his death in AD 444. He led the party
against Nestorius at the Council of Ephesus in AD 431, taught that the Word of God is one
with his own flesh, and made peace with the Antiochenes in AD 433. He also wrote long
commentaries on Scripture.

The Commentary on the Gospel of John is one of Cyril’s chief writings. This first volume
holds Cyril’s preface, in which he speaks of the care that is needed in explaining the
Scriptures, and then Books 1 to 5, from the prologue of the Gospel to the teaching at the
feast of Tabernacles.

DATES AND AUTHORSHIP

Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short
introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is
uncertain.


COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V
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COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V Cyril of Alexandria

c. AD 376–444

Cyril wrote his Commentary on the Gospel of John in twelve books, and he answers
throughout the teaching of the Arians and the Eunomians about the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The English translation was made in the nineteenth century by Philip Pusey and Thomas
Randell. Books 7 and 8 survive only in fragments. This volume holds Books I to V.

PREFACE

THE LORD will give utterance to them who evangelize with much power, declareth exceeding
well the Psalmist. But I deem that they who ought to approach this, are, not mere chance
persons, but those who have been illumined with the grace that is from above, seeing that
both All wisdom is from the Lord, as it is written, and Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights. For a thing unsure and not
unfraught with peril to the many, is the speaking concerning the Essence that is above
all, and the Mysteries belonging thereunto, and silence on these subjects is free from
danger. Us nevertheless albeit deeming that we have much need of silence, God Who is over
all excludes from this, saying to one of the Saints (this was Paul), Speak and hold not
thy peace. And no less does the ordinance of the Law shew this, indicating things
spiritual in the grosser type. For it enjoins those who have been called to the Divine
Priesthood, to declare to the people by the sound of trumpets, about those things which
they ought to learn.

For God, when He willed to set forth in His laws most excellent things, did not I deem
intend that the leaders of the people should lay their hand on their mouth, as it is
written, and, in fear of appearing rashly to attempt things above the mind of man, hold
back from the doctrine that is so necessary for those who are being instructed in piety
and the knowledge of God, and choose a silence perilous to those who are their disciples.
But the Disciple of Christ again terrifies us, saying Be not many masters, and moreover
the most wise Preacher too, darkly shewing the peril that exists in the teaching of such
things. For, says he, he that cleaveth wood, shall be endangered thereby; if the iron head
fall, both himself hath troubled his face and he shall strengthen powers. For he likens
the keenness of the mind to the iron-head, in that it is of a nature to pierce through,
and sinks in to the innermost parts, even though it be resisted by the thickness and close
texture of the wood. Wood again he in a figure calls the thoughts that are in Holy
Scripture, which render the Books wherein they are a kind of Spiritual Paradise, and yet
more than this, full with the fruitfulness that comes of the Holy Ghost.

He that endeavours therefore to unfold the spiritual wood, that is the Divine and Mystic
thoughts of Divinely-inspired Scripture by means of insearch, and most accurate grasp and
keenness of mind, will run very deep risk, saith he, when the iron-head slippeth, that is
when the mind not carried to a true understanding of the things which are written, misses
the right perception, and having left, as it were, the straight path, is borne on some
other way of thought turned aside from what is fitting. Whereupon he will place in
jeopardy the face of his soul, that is, his heart, and will invigorate against himself the
bad opposing powers, who with their bitter perverse words sophisticate the mind of those
who have gone astray; not suffering it to behold the beauty of truth, but manifoldly
perverting it and persuading it to go astray after mad thoughts. For no one calleth Jesus
Anathema save in Beelzebub.

And let no one deem, himself astray, that the exposition of the above is astray, or
otherwise of false reasoning. For Divine Scripture does sometimes, as we said before, call
the thoughts of Holy Scripture wood. And indeed the God Who is over all says something on
this sort through the all-wise Moses to those at that time: When thou shalt besiege a city
a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof
by forcing an axe against them, for thou mayest eat of them and thou shalt not cut them
down: (is the tree of the forest a man, to go before thee unto the palisade?) Only the
trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them
down, But that the God of all would not have deemed it worth to prescribe to us such
things, if it were to be understood only of trees of the earth, is I suppose clear to
every one, yet I think one ought to shew from another command also that He is very
unsparing of these, and takes not account of them. For what I pray does He enjoin should
be done to the false-called gods? Ye shall destroy their altars, saith He, and break down
their images, and cut down their groves. And by His own altar He no way suffers any tree
to be cultivated. For He plainly declares: Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees
near unto the altar of the Lord thy God. And if one must add anything to this, I will
speak after the manner of most wise Paul. Both God take care for trees? or saith He it
altogether for our sakes? by grosser examples leading us by the hand to the idea of
spiritual things.

Let us now say that the writings of the unholy heretics may be considered as cities, and
fortified, haply not without skill, by the wisdom of the world, and the intricate deceits
of their cogitations. There comes to storm them, and in some sort environs and sits round
them taking the shield of the faith and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God,
every one who agonizes for the holy dogmas of the Church, and sets himself in array with
all his strength against their false-speaking, studying to cast down imaginations, as Paul
saith, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and
bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. When then, He says, such
a soldier of Christ compasses, as a land of aliens, the bitter writings of heresies, and
lights upon the best cultivated trees, that is, if he find words from the Divinely-
inspired Scripture, or things spoken by the Prophets or even testimonies from the New
Testament, wrested unto their own purpose, let him not apply his mental acumen, like a
sort of tool, to destroy and cut them down. For not because taken hold of by those who
know not to interpret it aright, is therefore that which proceeds of the Mouth of God to
be wholly rejected too: but since it is fruit-bearing, it shall be to thee rather as a
help and for food.

For turning round unto the right argument of the faith that which is sometimes foolishly
taken by them, not only shall we not be caught unstrung, but rather are we nerved into
words against heresy. But he subjoins forthwith an argument persuading the hearers, that
the onslaught of the advocate for the truth should be made, not for the overthrow of the
Divine oracles, but for the destruction of what is non-rightly said by the opponents. For
is, it says, the tree of the forest a man, to go before thee unto the palisade? For do you
suppose, he says, that the utterance of the holy writings, will of its own self rise up
against thee to battle, like one of the arch-heretics, and is not rather wronged by their
madness? Do not then cut it down, says it, but let it be to thee as food also; only the
trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them
down. For uneatable by them who would think aright, is the fruit of those men's writings:
against them let every tool come: there let the might of the spiritual wood-men be shewn,
upon them let the axe of strength in advocacy glitter. For the uselessness and
unprofitableness of the babbling of the heterodox the Prophet Hosea also most excellently
interprets to us saying: A stalk having no strength to yield meal; if so be it yield, the
strangers shall swallow it up.

For they that are diligent to estrange themselves from friendship with God, shall feast
themselves on the weak and old-wife tale of those people's unlearning. As then I was
saying at the beginning (for I think we must go back to that), most exceeding hard is the
exposition of the Divine mysteries, and better perchance were silence, but since thy much
speech persuadeth us, O most labour-loving brother, to offer the work, as a sort of fruit
of our lips, and spiritual sacrifice, this too will I not shrink from doing, encouraging
myself in God who maketh wise the blind, and seeketh at our hands not surely that which is
above us, but accepteth equally the offerings of poor men. For him that would offer a gift
for a burnt-sacrifice to the Lord, as is put in the beginning of Leviticus, the lawgiver
having enjoined an offering of the herd and having moreover herein set down the measure of
the honour of the type, he again lowers it, saying that they who cannot attain to this,
should sacrifice of the flock. And well did he know that sad and inexorable poverty will
render some powerless even to this: therefore he says, he shall bring his offering of
turtledoves or of young pigeons. But him that comes yet short of these too, and approaches
with the most insignificant offerings, he honours. For says he, his offering shall be fine
flour, defining an offering easily procurable I suppose by every one and not too
oppressive to the deepest poverty.

For the lawgiver well knew (I think) that better and more excellent is it to bear fruit
even a little, than to be wholly bereft of it and through shame of seeming to come short
of others' gifts, to rush forward to the conclusion that it needs not to honour the Lord
of all. Persuaded then with reason by all these things, and having dismissed from my mind
unreadiness, the ally of silence, I will deem it my duty to honour my Lord with what I
have, discourse wholesome and joyous to the readers, like fine flour bedewed with oil: and
we will begin the Book of John, taking in hand an exceeding great work, yet by reason of
faith, not unstrung. And that we shall say and think less than is meet, we must
unhesitatingly confess. But the great difficulty of the book, or to speak more truly, the
weakness of our understanding, will persuade us to ask meet pardon for this. Turning about
on every hand our discourse to the more dogmatical exposition, we will set it in array,
according to our power, against the false doctrines of them that teach otherwise, not
stretching it forth to its full extent, but even retrenching superfluity, and studying to
render it not lacking fitness. The subjoined subscription of the chapters, will shew the
subjects over which our discourse extends, to which we have also annexed numbers, that
what is sought may be readily found by the readers.


COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V
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COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V continued

BOOK I

Exact of a truth, and God-taught is the mind of the holy Evangelists, from the splendour
of their power to behold, as from some lofty mountain-spur and watch-peak, on all sides
observing what is of profit to the hearers, and tracking with intent zeal whatever may
seem to be of profit to those who thirst after the truth of the Divine dogmas and with
good purpose search after the mind that is hidden in the Divine Scriptures. For not in
those who search too curiously, and take pleasure in the many-tangled wiles of reasonings,
rather than rejoice in the truth, does the Spirit make His revelation, since neither does
He enter into a malicious soul, nor otherwise does He suffer His precious 'pearls to be
rolled at the feet of swine. But with exceeding pleasure does He have fellowship with
simpler minds, as having a more guileless motion, and shunning superfluous subtleties,
whereto specially pertains the meeting with sudden fear, and from too great turning aside
unto the right hand to err from the straight and royal road. For he that walketh simply
walketh surely, as saith Solomon.

But while the holy Evangelists have a marvellous exactness in writing (for it is not they
that speak, as the Saviour saith, but the Spirit of the Father which is in them):
reasonably may one grant that the Book of John has been composed beyond all marvel,
looking both to the supereminence of his thoughts, the keenness of his intellect, and the
constant and close-succeeding cumulation of conceptions. For course-fellows are they one
with, another in the exposition of the Divine dogmas, and loosing as it were from the
starting line they course charioteers to one goal. But a diverse fashion of speech is
wrought out by them, and they appear to me to resemble persons, who are ordered to come
together unto one city, but care not to approach it by one and the same beaten road. Thus
one may see the other Evangelists with great exactness giving the account of our Saviour's
genealogy in the Flesh, and bringing down step by step those from Abraham unto Joseph, or
again carrying up those from Joseph to Adam. But we find the blessed John not caring to be
over-studious about these, but with a most fervent and fire-full motion of intellect
endeavouring to lay hold of those very things that are above human mind, and daring to
explain the unspeakable and unutterable Generation of God the Word. For he knew that the
glory of God hideth speech, and greater than our idea and utterance is the God-befitting
dignity, and hard to utter and most difficult of unfolding are the properties of the
Divine Nature.

But since it was necessary in some sort to mete out heaven with the span, and to suffer
the scant measures of human nature to approach to what is by all unattainable and hard to
be explained, that the approach might not be opened out for those who teach otherwise to
come against the more simple, in that no voice of the saints who have been eyewitnesses
and ministers of the word held in check their ill-surmisings, keen comes he to the very
essence of the Divine dogmas, crying aloud, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word,
was with God and the Word was God: the Same was in the beginning with God. But I think
that those who are engaged on the Holy Scriptures ought to admit all writings that are
honest and good and free from harm. For thus collecting together the varied thoughts of
many and bringing them together into one scope and understanding, they will mount up to a
good measure of knowledge, and imitating the bee, wise workwoman, will compact the sweet
honeycomb of the Spirit.

Some then of those of most research, say that after our Saviour's Cross and Ascension into
Heaven, certain false shepherds and false teachers falling like wild beasts on the
Saviour's flocks terrified them not a little, speaking out of their own heart, as it is
written, and not out of the mouth of the Lord; yea rather, not merely out of their own
heart, but out of the teachings of their own father, I mean the devil. For if no one can
call Jesus Anathema, save in Beelzebub, how is not what we say of them clearly true? What
things then are they which these men belched forth against their own head? They ignorantly
and impiously affirmed that the Only-Begotten Word of God, the Eternal Light, in Whom we
both move and are, was then first called into being, when He was born Man of the Holy
Virgin, and taking this our common fashion, shewed Himself upon earth, as it is written,
and conversed with men. On those then who are thus disposed, and who dare to slander the
ineffable and eternal Generation of the Son, the word of the Prophet comes heavily, saying
thus: But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulteress and the
whore, against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth and draw out
the tongue? not bringing forth good things out of a good heart, but spueing forth the
venom of the blood-defiled dragon, of whom saith the Psalmist unto the one God That is
over all: Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.

But since there was no slight disturbance in regard to these things amongst them that had
believed, and the ill of the scandal thereof was consuming like a plague the souls of the
simpler (for some drawn away from the true doctrines by their prattle imagined that the
Word was then barely called to the beginning of Being, when He became Man), those of the
believers who were wiser being assembled and met together, came to the Disciple of the
Saviour (I mean this John) and declared the disease that was pressing upon the brethren,
and unfolded to him the prattle of them that teach otherwise, and besought that he would
both strenuously assist themselves with the illumination through the Spirit, and stretch
forth a saving hand to those who were already within the devil's meshes. The disciple
grieving then over them that were lost and corrupted in mind, and at the same time
thinking it most unnatural to take no forethought for those that should succeed and come
after, betakes himself to making the book: and the more human side, the genealogy of the
legal and natural Birth according to the flesh, he left to the other Evangelists to tell
at fuller length; himself with extreme ardour and courage of soul springs upon the prattle
of those who are introducing such things, saying, IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD.

Chapter I. That Everlasting and before the ages is the Only-Begotten.

What do they say to this [namely, In the beginning was the Word] who introduce to us the
Son, as one new and of late, that so He may no longer be believed to be even God at all.
For, says the Divine Scripture, there shall no new God be in thee. How then is He not new,
if He were begotten in the last times? How did He not speak falsely when He said to the
Jews, Verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am? For plain is it and confessed by
all, that many ages after the blessed Abraham was Christ born of the Holy Virgin. How at
all will the words was in the beginning remain and come to anything, if the Only-Begotten
came into being at the close of the ages? See I pray by the following arguments too how
great absurdity, this cutting short the Eternal Being of the Son, and imagining that He
came into being in the last times, yields.

But this same word of the Evangelist shall be proposed again for a finer test: In the
Beginning was the Word. Than the beginning is there nothing older, if it have, retained to
itself, the definition of the beginning (for a beginning of beginning there cannot be); or
it will wholly depart from being in truth a beginning, if something else be imagined
before it and arise before it. Otherwise, if anything can precede what is truly beginning,
our language respecting it will go off to infinity, another beginning ever cropping up
before, and making second the one under investigation. There will then be no beginning of
beginning, according to exact and true reasoning, but the account of it will recede unto
the long-extended and incomprehensive. And since its ever-backward flight has no terminus,
and reaches up to the limit of the ages, the Son will be found to have been not made in
time, but rather invisibly existing with the Father: for in the beginning was He. But if
He was in the beginning, what mind, tell me, can over-leap the force of the was? When will
the was stay as at its terminus, seeing that it ever runs before the pursuing reasoning,
and springs forward before the conception that follows it?

Astonishment-stricken whereat the Prophet Isaiah says, Who shall declare His generation?
for His Life is lifted from the earth. For verily lifted from the earth is the tale of the
generation of the Only-Begotten, that is, it is above all understanding of those who are
on the earth and above all reason, so as to be in short inexplicable. But if it is above
our mind and speech, how will He be originate, seeing that our understanding is not
powerless to clearly define both as to time and manner things originate? To look in
another way at the same, In the Beginning was the Word. It is not possible to take
beginning, understood in any way of time, of the Only-Begotten, seeing that He is before
all time and hath His Being before the ages, and, yet more, the Divine Nature, shuns the
limit of a terminus. For It will be ever the same, according to what is sung in the
Psalms, But Thou art the Same and Thy years shall have no end. From what beginning then
measured in respect of time and dimension will the Son proceed, Who endureth not to hasten
to any terminus, in that He is God by Nature, and therefore crieth, I am the Life? For no
beginning will ever be conceived of by itself that does not look to its own end, since
beginning is so called in reference to end, end again in reference to beginning. But the
beginning we are pointing to in this instance is that relating to time and dimension.
Hence, since the Son is elder than the ages themselves, He will be free of any generation
in time; and He ever was in the Father as in a Source, according to that which He Himself
said, I came forth from the Father and am come. The Father then being considered as the
Source, the Word was in Him, being His Wisdom and Power and Express Image and Radiance and
Likeness. And if there was no time when the Father was without Word and Wisdom and Express
Image and Radiance, needs is it to confess too that the Son Who is all these to the
Everlasting Father, is Everlasting. For how at all is He Express Image, how Exact
Likeness, except He be plainly formed after that Beauty, Whose Likeness He also is?

Nor is it any objection to conceive of the Son being in the Father as in a Source: for the
word source here only means the "whence." But the Son is in the Father, and of the Father,
not as made externally, nor in time, but being in the Essence of the Father and flashing
forth from Him, as from the sun its radiance, or as from fire its innate heat. For in such
examples, one may see one thing generated of another, but yet ever co-existing and
inseparable, so that one cannot exist of itself apart from the other, and yet preserve the
true condition of its own nature. For how can there be sun which has not radiance, or how
radiance without sun being within to irradiate it? how fire, if it have not heat? whence
heat, save from fire, or from some other thing not removed from the essential quality of
fire? As then in these, the in-existence of the things that are of them does not take away
their co-existence, but indicates the things generated ever keeping pace with their
generators and possessed of one nature so to speak with them, so too is it with the Son.
For even if He be conceived and said to be in the Father and of the Father, He will not
come before us as alien and strange and a Being second to Him, but as in Him and co-
existing ever, and shining forth from Him, according to the ineffable mode of the Divine
generation.

But that God the Father is spoken of by the saints too as the Beginning of the Son in the
sense only of "whence," hear the Psalmist through the Holy Ghost foretelling the second
Appearance of our Saviour and saying as to the Son: With Thee the Beginning in the Day of
Thy Power in the beauty of Thy Saints. For the day of the Son's Power is that whereon He
shall judge the world and render to every one according to his works. Yerily shall He then
come, Himself in the Father, and having in Himself the Father, the so to say unbeginning
Beginning of His Nature in regard only to the "whence," by reason of His Being of the
Father. In the Beginning was the Word. Unto many and various ideas does our discourse
respecting the here signified beginning diversify itself, on all sides zealous to capture
things that tend to profit, and after the manner of a hound, tracking the true
apprehension of the Divine dogmas, and exactitude in the mysteries. For search, saith the
Saviour, the Holy Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they
which testify of Me. The Blessed Evangelist, then, seems here to name the Father Ἀρχὴ 1,
that is the Power over all, that the Divine Nature Which is over all may be shewn, having
under Its feet every thing which is originate, and borne above those things which are by
It called into being.

In this Ἀρχὴ then that is above all and over all was the Word, not, with all things, under
Its feet, but apart from all things, in It by Nature as Its Co-Eternal Fruit, having the
Nature of Him Who begat Him as it were a place the most ancient of all. Wherefore He
Begotten Free of Free Father, will with Him possess the Sovereignty over all. What then
now too will be the nature of the argument in this, it is meet to see. Hazardful have
certain, as we said above, asserted that the Word of God was then first called into being,
when taking the Temple that is of the Holy Virgin He became Man for us. What then will be
the consequence, if the Son's Nature be thus, or originate and made and of like nature
with all things else, to which birth out of not being, and the name and fact of servitude,
are rightfully and truly predicated? For what of things that are made can with impunity
escape servitude under the God That is Lord of all? what does not stoop under the
sovereignty and power and lordship that is over all, which Solomon himself too signifies
to us when he says, For the throne of Sovereignty is established with righteousness? For
ready and exceeding prepared unto righteousness is the Throne of the Sovereignty, that I
mean which is over all. And what throne that is of which we are now speaking, hear God
saying by one of the Saints, The Heaven is My Throne. Ready therefore unto righteousness
is the Heaven, that is, the holy spirits in the heavens.

Since then one must needs confess that the Son is with the rest of the creatures subject
to God the Father, as having the position of a servant, and together with the rest falling
under the authority of the Ἀρχὴ, if He be according to them late in Birth and one of those
who have been made in time:----of necessity does the Blessed Evangelist spring with energy
on those who teach otherwise, and withdraw the Son from all bondage. And he shews that He
is of the Essence that is Free and Sovereign over all, and declares that He is in Him by
Nature saying, In the beginning was the Word. But to the word Ἀρχὴ he fitly annexes the
was, that He may be thought of as not only of renown, but also before the ages. For the
word was is here put, carrying on the idea of the thinker to some deep and
incomprehensible Generation, the Ineffable Generation that is outside of time. For that
was, spoken indefinitely, at what point will it rest, its nature being ever to push
forward before the pursuing mind, and whatever point of rest any might suppose that it
has, that it makes the starting point of its further course? The Word was then in the
Ἀρχὴ, that is in Sovereignty over all things, and possessing the dignity of Lord, as being
by Nature from It. But if this be true, how is He any longer originate or made? And where
the was wholly is, how will the "was not" come in, or what place will it have at all as
regards the Son?

Chapter II. That the Son being Consubstantial with the Father is also God in His Own
Person, even as also the Father.

And the Word was with God. Having sufficiently shewn that already out of date and astray
from the truth is the senseless mind of those who hold such opinions, and having, by
saying In the beginning was the Word, closed every loophole to those who say that the Son
is of the things that are not, and having utterly stripped off all their nonsense in these
words, he goes to another akin and most perverse heresy. And like as some gardener at once
most excellent and enduring, delights much in the toils of the mattock, and girding his
loins, and in the working-dress befitting him, gives all diligence to present the
appearance of his park free from the unseemliness of thorns, and ceases not throwing one
upon another, and, ever going round about, removes the troublesome root, applying the
stern tooth of the mattock; so the blessed John too, bearing in his mind the quick and
powerful and most sharp word of God and considering with keenest glance and clearest
attention the bitter shoots of the naughtiness of those who think otherwise, comes upon
them so to speak at a run, and with mighty resolution cuts them off on every side, to
those who read his books ministering defence in the right faith.

For see now again I pray, the vigilance of this bearer within him of the Spirit. He taught
in the foregoing, that the Word was in Ἀρχὴ, that is, in God the Father, as we said. But
since, with the eye of his understanding illumined, he was not ignorant, as we may
suppose, that certain would arise, of their great ignorance saying that the Father and Son
are one and the same, and distinguishing the Holy Trinity only by name, but not suffering
Them to exist in Their several Persons, so that the Father should be conceived of as in
truth Father and not Son, the Son again to be by Himself Son, not Father, as the word of
truth is:----needs against this heresy too as already confronting him, and mooted at that
time, or about so to be, does he arm himself, and for its destruction, by the side of In
the beginning was the Word he puts forthwith, And the Word was with God: every where
adding of necessity the was on account of His Generation before the ages, yet by saying
that the Word was with God, shewing that the Son is One, having existence by Himself, God
the Father again, with Whom was the Word, Another. For how can that which is one in number
be conceived of as itself with itself, or beside itself?

But that the reasoning of the heretics about these things also will be found without
learning, we will teach by the considerations below, making an exact test of the questions
regarding it. Proof by demonstration and Scripture testimonies, that the Father is in His
Own Person, and the Son likewise, the Holy Ghost being counted with Them as God, even
though nothing is for the present enquired into regarding Him. Consubstantial is the Son
with the Father and the Father with the Son, wherefore They arrive at an unchangeable
Likeness, so that the Father is seen in the Son, the Son in the Father, and Each flashes
forth in the Other, even as the Saviour Himself says, He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father, and again, I in the Father and the Father in Me. But even though He be in the
Father, and have again the Father in Him, Himself full well, as has been already said,
perfectly exact unto the Form of Him Who begat Him, and depicting again in Himself without
any shortcome, the Father whence He is:----not therefore will He be deprived of His
separate existence, nor will the Father lose His own special Being; but neither will the
surpassing Likeness and Resemblance work any confusion of Persons, so that the Father Who
begat and the Son Who is Begotten of Him should be considered as one in number. But
sameness of Nature will be confessed of Both, yet the Individual Existence of Each will
surely follow, so that both the Father should be conceived of as indeed Father, and the
Son as Son. For thus, the Holy Ghost being numbered with them and counted as God, the Holy
and Adorable Trinity will have Its Proper Fullness.

Another. If the Son Himself is Father too, what place has the distinction of names? For if
He begat not at all, why is He called Father? How Son, if He were not begotten of the
Father? For the Names ask as of necessity such an idea regarding them. But since the
Divine Scriptures preach that the Son was Begotten, and the truth is so, He has therefore
an existence by Himself. The Father too is again by Himself, if indeed that which is
begotten is plainly one thing from another as regards that which begets. Another. The
blessed Paul writing his letter to the Philippians says of the Son, Who being in the Form
of God, thought it not robbery to be Equal with God. Who then is He Who would not that His
being Equal with God should be thought robbery? For must one not needs say, that One is He
Who is in the Form of God, Another again He Whose Form it was? But this is clear and
confessed by all. Therefore not one and the same in number are Father and Son, but of
distinct Being and beheld in One Another, according to sameness of Essence, even if They
be One of One, to wit the Son of the Father.

Another. I and My Father are One, said the Saviour, as knowing, that is, that Himself has
a separate existence and the Father too. But if the truth of the fact be not so, why did
He not, keeping what belongs to oneness, say, I and My Father am One? But since He
explains what He means by the plural number, clearly He overthrows the surmise of those
who think otherwise. For we are will not be with sense taken of one. Another. At the
fashioning of man the voice of God is introduced saying, Let Us make man in Our Image,
after Our likeness. If then the amplitude, if I may so call it, of the Holy Trinity is
contracted into a One in number, and they impiously take away from the Father and the Son
Their separate Existence: who is he who says, and to whom, Let us make man in Our Image?
For He ought forsooth to say, if it be as they in their silly nonsense say, Let us make
man in my image, after my likeness. But now the writer of the Book, not saying this
indeed, but allotting the creation to the plural number and adding Our image, well-nigh
with clear and mighty voice proclaims the enumeration of the Holy Trinity to be above One.

Another. If the Son is the Brightness of the Father, as Light of Light, how is He not
other than Him, as of distinct Being? For that which is the embrightened, is so in very
deed from other, that namely which brightens it, and not itself from itself. Another. The
Son shewing Himself of the Essence of God the Father says again, I came forth from the
Father and am come; again I go to the Father. How then will He not be Other than the
Father in Person and number, when all reason persuades us to conceive of that which
proceeds from ought as other than that from whence it proceeded? Not true therefore is the
contrary argument. Another. Believing in God the Father, in His Only-Begotten Son, and in
the Holy Ghost we are justified. Wherefore the Saviour Himself too enjoins His own
Disciples saying Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the Name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. If then the difference of the Names is to
contribute nothing to our conception, but when one says the Father, he means the Son, and
in naming the Son makes mention of the Father, what need was there of bidding that the
believers should be baptized not into Unity but into Trinity? But since the tale of the
Divine Nature runs forth into the number three, it is I suppose wholly manifest to all
that Each of those so numbered exists in His Own Person, but by reason of there being no
change in the Nature, It arrives at One Godhead and has the same worship.

Another. The Divine Scripture says that the cities of the Sodomites were burned by the
Anger of God, and explaining how the Divine wrath was brought upon them, and clearly
describing the mode of the destruction, The Lord, it says, rained upon Sodom brimstone and
fire from, the Lord, since this too is the portion of the cup most befitting those who are
wont to commit such sins. What Lord then from what Lord sent the fire on and consumed the
cities of the Sodomites? It is clear that it was the Father Who worketh all things through
the Son, since He is too His Might and His Arm, Who caused Him to rain the fire upon the
Sodomites. Since therefore the Lord sends the fire from the Lord upon them, how is not the
Father Other, in respect to His own Being, than the Son,, and the Son again than the
Father? For the One is here signified as being from One.

Another. Moved by prophetic spirit, and through it foreknowing things to come, the blessed
Psalmist had perceived that the human race could no otherwise be saved, except by the
alone Appearing of the Son of God, Who is able easily to trans-order all things to
whatsoever He will. Wherefore he besought that the Son might be sent to us, as alone able
to save those who were under subjection and oppression of the devil, and said, as though
to God the Father, O send out Thy Light and Thy Truth. What then the Light is, and what
the Truth, hear the Son Himself saying, I am the Light and I am the Truth. But if the
Light and the Truth of the Father, that is the Son, be sent to us, how is He not Other
than He, as far as His own Being, even if He be One with Him as regards Sameness of
Essence? For if any imagine that it is not so, but that Father and Son are one and the
Same, why does not he who bears within him the Spirit make the fashion of his prayer
different and cry, Come to us, O Light and Truth? But since he says O send out, plainly he
knew that One is the Sender, Another the Sent: be the mode of the Sending conceived of as
befits God.

Another. The Divine Scriptures say, that through the Son were made all things that are in
heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, and thus believing, we the
worshippers of the truth go on our way in rightness of conception, and within the dogmas
of piety. Let us then scrutinize the expression through the Son, and examine what sense it
gives us. It is clear that it would have us conceive of the Doer and Worker as One, Him
through Whom all things are wrought as Another. For the expression through the Son gives,
as of necessity, a sort of exhibition of two Persons. Else let them say how the word
through the Son in His being said to do anything, will rightly and truly admit the one in
number and in the reckoning thereto pertaining, if none other be conceived of with Him and
concurring with Him. But I suppose that our opponent will be wholly at a loss. But since
both the Divine Scriptures proclaim that the Father hath wrought all things through the
Son, and we believe it and I suppose that they too: how is it not of necessity to conceive
that the Father exists separately and by Himself, and in like manner the Son, nor does
this any way overthrow the fact that the Holy Trinity is seen in sameness of Essence.

Chapter III. That the Son is both God by Nature and in no wise either inferior to or
unlike the Father.

And the Word was God. He who bare within him the Spirit was not ignorant that there should
arise some in the last times who should accuse the Essence of the Only Begotten and deny
the Lord that bought them, by supposing that the Word Who appeared from God the Father is
not by Nature God, but should bring in besides Him some so to speak spurious and false-
called god, having about him the name of Sonship and Deity, but not so in truth. Such do
they, who give the Jewish impiety of Arius an abode in their own mind; wherefore they put
forth out of a dead heart, no life-giving word of pious thought, but that which looketh
and tendeth unto death. Their tongue verily is as an arrow shot out; deceitful the words
of their mouth. As though then some one were already resisting the words of truth, and
were almost saying to the Holy Evangelist; The Word was with God, Sir, be it so, we agree
fully to what you have written as to this. Be the Father and Exist He separately, and the
Son likewise. What now ought one to suppose that the Word is by Nature? for His Being with
God, does not at all reveal His Essence. But since the Divine Scriptures proclaim One God,
we will allot this to the Father only, with Whom the Word was. What then replies Truth's
herald? Not only was the Word with God, but He was also God, that through His being with
God, He might be known to be Other than the Father and might be believed to be Son
distinct and by Himself; through being God, He might be conceived of as Consubstantial and
of Him by Nature, as being both God and coming forth from God. For it were inconceivable,
since the Godhead is by all confessed to be One, that the Holy Trinity should not in every
wise arrive at Sameness of Essence and so reach one relation of Godhead. He was then also
God. He did not become so at last, but He was, if indeed eternal being will most specially
and surely follow on being God: for that which became in time, or was at all brought from
not being into being, will not be by Nature God.

Seeing then that God the Word has Eternity through the word was, Consubstantiality with
the Father through being God, how great punishment and vengeance must we needs think that
they shall be found to incur, who think that He is in ought whatever inferior, or unlike
Him who begat Him, and shudder not to go forward to that height of impiety, as even to
dare to utter such things to others also, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof
they affirm? But that the Son Who is of Him of a truth is in no wise inferior to the
Father, we shall know again from the accompanying considerations. Another. By many and
varied names do the Divine Scriptures call the Son. For they say that He is the Wisdom and
Power of the Father, according to what is said by Paul, Christ the Power of God and the
Wisdom of God. He is called again both His Light and His Truth, as is sung in the Psalms
by one of the Saints, O send out Thy Light and Thy Truth. He is called also Righteousness,
as, Quicken me in Thy Righteousness: for the Father quickens in Christ those who believe
on Him. He is called also the Counsel of the Father, as it is said, Thou shalt guide me
with Thy Counsel, and again, The Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever. Since then the Son
is all these to God the Father, let them tell us who fawn on the error of Arius and are
filled with that man's folly, how He is lesser than He. For if they be right, it is time
to say that the Father is not wholly wise, not wholly Mighty, not wholly Light, not wholly
Truth, not wholly Righteous, yea, not even Perfect in Counsel, if the Son Who is all these
to Him, by reason of being inferior is shewn to be not Perfect. But to think or say thus
is impious. Perfect is the Father, because He has all things perfectly in Himself: Perfect
then clearly the Son too, the Wisdom and the Power, the Light and the Truth, the
Righteousness and the Counsel of the Father. But He Who fulfilleth Perfection in His own
Father, how can He be conceived of as inferior?

Another. If the Son having inferiority to God the Father, is worshipped both by us and by
the Holy Angels, we shall be taken in the act of serving two gods, since that which lacks
perfection will never attain to sameness of essence with the Perfect; but vast is the
difference sundering unto alienship things unlike as regards their nature. But the faith
is not in plurality of gods, but One is God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost attaining
unto unity with Him. The charge against the Son then comes to nothing. For how yet will
that which is inferior be admitted into unity with the Perfect Father, and be united as to
Nature in unity of Essence? Another. If the Son is fulness (for of His fulness have all we
received) how will what is inferior have a place? for things that are contrary to one
another are irreconcileable in one subject at the same time.

Another. If the Son who has the lesser filleth all things, where will the greater of the
Father have place? For the argument shall be used in more corporeal form, in the way of
example, while the superiority and inferiority in the unembodied is otherwise conceived
of. Another. If God is That Which is above every name, and the Son Who is His Heir attains
not to be Perfect by reason of the lesser, there is no greatness in that which is above
all things, that is God. But it is absurd either to think or to say this: Perfect
therefore is the Son, as being above every name, and God. Another. If the Divine Nature is
without quantity, and the lesser is cognizant of degree, how can the Son Who is by Nature
God be conceived of as inferior? For He will not be beyond the province of quantity, if
they say that He has inferiority to the Father.

Another. The blessed John says of the Son that 2 He giveth not the Spirit by measure, to
those that is who are worthy. Since then there is not measure in the Son, He is
immeasurable, and surpasses all comprehension in quantity as being God. How then is the
not-measured less? Another. If the Son is lesser, the Father greater, differently, it is
plain, and in proportion to the measures that Either hath, will they contribute to our
sanctification. And the Father will sanctify in a greater degree, the Son in a less and
separately. The Spirit therefore will be twofold, and less in the Son, greater in the
Father. And they who are sanctified by the Father will be sanctified perfectly, they who
by the Son, not perfectly. But great is the absurdity of reasoning herein. For One is the
Holy Ghost, one and perfect the Sanctification, freely given by the Father through the Son
Naturally. Not lesser then is He Who has the same operation with the Perfect Father, and
Who has the Spirit of Him Who begat Him, a good of His own Nature, Living and inexisting,
even as the Father hath.

Another. If the Son were in the Form and Equality of God, as Paul saith, how is He lesser
that He? For the mode of the dispensation with Flesh and the humiliation thereupon
mentioned, which has the Second Appearance from Heaven as its termination, will not, I
suppose, bare the Son of the dignity by Nature belonging to Him. For He will surely come,
as we heard Him say, in the glory of His Father. How then is he at all in the glory of the
Perfect Father who is inferior to Him? Another. God the Father is somewhere found to say
by one of the prophets, I will not give My glory unto another. We must ask therefore those
who impiously dishonour the Son, nay rather through Him the Father too (for he that
honoureth not the Son, neither doth he honour the Father), whether the Son being, as they
suppose, less than God the Father is Consubstantial with Him, or no? If then they shall
say that He is Consubstantial, why do they for nought put on Him the less? For things that
are of the same essence and nature, will never have the greater in themselves, as regards
the mode of their being: for this altogether is it that is under consideration.

But they will not perhaps agree, nor will grant that the Son is Consubstantial with the
Father, He being according to them less: He will therefore be wholly other and alien from
the Father. How then has He His glory? For there was given Him, says blessed Daniel, glory
and a kingdom. For either God the Father will lie in saying, I will not give My glory unto
another: or if He is true, and did give His glory to the Son, then is He not other than
He, the Fruit of His Essence and His True Offspring. And He Who is so situated towards the
Father in regard of Essence, how will He be less than He? Others, simple and without
connection. If the Father is Almighty, and the Son likewise Almighty, how is He lesser
than He? for I do not suppose that according to the law of sequence, the imperfect will
mount up to the measure of the perfect. And if the Father is Lord, and the Son likewise
Lord; how is He less than He? For He will be not perfectly free, if He be less in
lordship, and have not the full dignity in Himself. And if the Father be Light, and the
Son likewise Light, how is He less than He? For He will be not perfectly Light, but will
be in part comprehended by darkness, and the Evangelist will lie in saying, The darkness
comprehended it not. And if the Father is Life, and the Son likewise Life, how is He less
than He? For in us life will not exist in perfect measure, even if Christ dwell in the
inner man: but they who believe are still to some degree dead, if so be that the Son
having the less, is not perfectly life. But since one must needs put as far away as
possible the absurdity of this, we say that Perfect is the Son, being . made equal to the
Perfect Father by reason of the exact Likeness of His Essence.

Another. If the Son be less than the Father, and therefore not Consubstantial; He is as a
consequence other by nature and wholly alien: hence He is not Son, yea not even God at
all. For how will he be called Son who is not of the Father, or how will he be any longer
God who is not of God by Nature? But since our faith is in the Son, we are still it seems
in error, not knowing the True God. But this is absurd. Believing therefore in the Son, we
believe in the Father too and in the Holy Ghost. The Son is not therefore alien from God
the Father as lesser, but has unity with Him, by reason of being of Him by Nature, and is
therefore both Equal and Perfect. Another. If God the Word Who beamed forth from God the
Father is in truth Son, of necessity must our opponents even against their will confess
that He is of the Essence of the Father; for this is what sonship in truth means. Then how
is Such inferior to the Father, if He be Fruit of His Essence, Which is nowise receptive
of the lesser within Itself? For all things are in perfect degree in God. But if He be not
of the Essence of the Father, neither is He Son, but some counterfeit and falsely-called:
yea neither will the Father Himself be rightly and truly called Father. For if there be no
Son by Nature, on account of Whom He is Father, how is He conceived of as Father? But this
is absurd, for God is Very Father; for so do all the Divine Scriptures cry aloud. He Who
is of Him by Nature is therefore surely Son: if so, not lesser; for He is Consubstantial
as Son.

Another. The name of family or fathership not God has of right from us, but we rather
clearly received it from Him. And trusty is the word of Paul crying on this wise, Of Whom
every family in heaven and earth is named. But since God is that which is most ancient of
all, by imitation are we fathers, who are called to His Pattern by reason of our being
made after His Image. Then how, tell me, are we who are made after His Likeness, by nature
fathers of our own children, if this be not the case in the Archetype, after Which we too
have been formed? How will any one grant that the name of family or fathership passed even
unto the rest from God, if He be not in very deed a Father? For, if it were so, the nature
of the thing would be wholly overturned and we should rather give to Him to be called
Father in imitation of us, than He give it to us. For this the argument will compel the
heretic even against his will to admit. The witness therefore of the truth lies in saying
that from Him is every family both in heaven and earth. But to say this is most absurd:
for true is he who is bold to say, Do ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me? and from
God does the name of family flow down to us also. He is therefore by Nature the Father of
the Word, He begat Him in all respects not unlike Himself, through His having the lesser
than whatever Himself has. For we who are made after an imitation of Him, do not so have
those that are begotten of us, but altogether equal, as regards the nature.

Another. Let not the heretic manifold in arguments deal subtilly with the truth, nor
confessing that the Word of God is Son, honour Him in mere words, saying that He is not of
the Essence of the Father. For how is He Son at all, except He be so by Nature? Let them
then either, stripping off the mask of hypocrisy, blaspheme openly, confessing that He is
neither God nor Son: or if convicted by the whole Divine Scripture and wounded by the
words of the Saints as by sling-stones they feel shame in presence of the truth, and say
that He is Son and God, let them not think that He is lesser than He Who begat Him. For
how will the Word, being God, admit of the lesser, compared to God the Father? although
man too is both called and is son of man, yet will he not be inferior to his father so far
as he is man. For man will not be greater or less than man, in respect of his being man,
nor yet angel than angel, in regard of his being angel, nor ought else of things that are
that is con-natural to any-thing whatsoever, and has a share of the same essence allotted
to it. Therefore if He is truly Son, one must needs say that He is of the Essence of the
Father, having all His Father's properties in Himself of Nature. And if the Father be God
by Nature, God by Nature plainly is also the Word Who is begotten of That Nature. How then
will God be less than God in regard to being God?

Another. Whence, sirs, did ye get the daring to say that the Son is in lesser condition
than He Who begat Him? How will He admit the lesser? As regards the date of being, no one
I suppose, even though exceeding silly, would surmise. For before the ages is the Son, and
Himself is the Maker of the ages: and it will be with reason conceived that He Who has His
Generation elder than all time, will not be defined by time. But neither is He lesser than
He in the dimension that belongs to size: for the Divine Nature is conceived of and is
without size, dimension and body. How then is the lesser to be taken of Him Who is
begotten? In glory, perhaps one will say, in power, in wisdom. Let them say then, how
great and large the Father is herein (if one must speak thus), in order that the Son may
be conceived of as less, when measured with Him? Or if the Father is in good
inconceiveable and immeasurable, and that far outstrips the measure of our understanding,
whence do the Arians, readily daring all things, say that the Son is lesser, to the
overthrow of the dignity that belongs to Him by nature? For the lesser is proved by the
juxtaposition of the greater; but if the Dignity of the Father is unmeasured, what is the
proof of its diminution in the Son?

Another. One may indeed with truth reply to the abomination of the unholy heretics, Our
enemies are without understanding. For how are they not full of all unlearning,
understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, as Paul saith? The reason why
we think it needful to accuse them is this. If they say that the Son is of a truth
begotten God of God the Father, and so believe, how is He lesser than the Father? For
great absurdity of ideas will hence be generated, on every side containing blasphemy, and
such that one would refuse only to hear them. For if the Son being God by Nature can any
whit admit in Himself the lesser, we must needs at length conceive that there is something
greater than God. The Essence then of the Father is not conceived of as being in
Perfection of every thing, even though He be by Nature God, but He will Himself progress
in some direction towards the greater, convicted in the Son His Image that He Himself too
is of the essence that admits the lesser. And He will suffer this virtually, even if He
have not yet suffered it; since things that are capable of ought, will altogether admit
the things whereof they are capable, and when the time calls them to suffer it, they will
not refuse it. But great is the blasphemy that is apparent herein. For neither will the
Father advance in any direction towards the greater, nor yet will He admit of the lesser,
by reason that He is by Nature God. Therefore neither will the Son admit in Himself the
lesser, in that He too is God by Nature, lest the syllable or two which was devised by the
unlearning of the heretics, should be imagined to be an accusal of the Essence that is
above all.

Another. If the Word of God the Father being by Nature His Son is lesser than He, either
in regard of God-befitting Dignity, or as not by Nature Unchangeable, or in any sort of
inferiority, the accusal will be not so much of Him as of the Essence Whereof He is
believed to be, if It altogether generate the lesser, or the worse, than Itself, although
the originate and constructed creation would not endure to do such a thing. For everything
that is fruit-bearing, brings forth what is wholly like itself. But if they say that the
Divine Nature of the Father is above all passion, It will manifestly be beyond this
charge, and being the Archetype of the good things that are in us, will beget the Son not
lesser, but Equal and Consubstantial, lest the God That is so far above us be inferior
even to us. Another by the method of reductio ad absurdum. Christ shewing that He is Equal
with God the Father says to His own Disciples, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.
Then how will He that is by Nature Such, and so IS as Himself with truth declares, have
the lesser, according to the uncounsel of some? For if being lesser He shews in Himself
the Father, without any intervening change, the lesser will reach to the Father, as
appearing in His Unchanged Image, the Son. But this is absurd: therefore not lesser is the
Son, in whom the Father being Perfect is imaged. Another. And how will the Son admit the
lesser, than wherein is the Father, seeing that He says without blame, All things that the
Father hath are Mine: and again, as to God the Father, All Mine are Thine and Thine are
Mine? For if indeed the Son is, according to the uncounsel of some, lesser; since He
speaks truth in saying to the Father, Mine are Thine and Thine are Mine, the lesser will
make its way to the Father too, and likewise the greater to the Son, the order of things
being indifferent, if what belongs to either are seen in the other, and whatsoever is the
Father's, this is the Son's also, and again whatever appears as the special property of
the Son, this is the Father's too. Nothing then will hinder our saying that the Father is
lesser than the Son, and the Son greater than the Father. But this is most absurd only to
conceive of: Equal therefore and not lesser is He Who hath the Prerogatives of Essence in
common with the Father.

Another of the same. If all that the Father hath, are wholly the Son's, and the Father
hath Perfection, Perfect will be the Son too, Who hath the properties and excellencies of
the Father. Therefore is He not lesser, according to the impiety of the heretics. Another
by the method of reductio ad absurdum, with combination of arguments. Let them tell us who
are pouring down the flame unquenchable on their own head, and who reject the uprightness
that is in the Divine Dogmas, devising wiles of many-coloured arguments unto the deceiving
and overthrow of the simpler, whether the Father is superior to the Son, having the
greater in comparison with Him, if He be less, as they in their silly talk say, or not?
But I entirely suppose that they will say, He is superior: or let them say what advantage
the Father hath in possessing the greater, if He be not superior. For if nothing at all,
the whole charge against the Son immediately comes to nought: but if there is any great
difference, He is then superior, as having the greater. Let them answer then and tell us,
if they are indeed wise, why the Father begetting the Son, begat Him not Equal to Himself
but lesser. For if it were clearly better to beget the Son in all things Equal to Himself,
who hindered His doing it? For if there is ought that hindered as of necessity, they will
admit even against their will, that there is somewhat greater than the Father. But if
there were nothing at all to hinder, but having the power and knowing that it is better to
beget the Son equal He begot Him lesser, this is plainly envy towards Him and an evil eye:
for He chose not to give equality to the Son.

Either then the Father is impotent in regard to His Begetting, or it will be evil eye,
according to the result collected out of the arguments, if the Son have the lesser
according to their account. But this is absurd; for the Divine and Untaint Nature is above
all passion. Therefore not less is the Son, that He lose not the equality, the Father
being in no wise powerless to beget His Offspring equal to Himself, nor yet hindered by
evil eye from choosing the better. Another. The Saviour Himself somewhere says that He is
in the Father and the Father likewise in Him. But it is plain to every one, that we are
not to suppose that like as one body is in another, or one vessel in another, so the
Father is contained in the Son, or the Son again in some way placed in the Father: but One
appears in the Other, and He in Him in the Unchanged Sameness of Essence, and in the Unity
and Likeness that belongs to Nature. As though a person beholding his own form in an image
were to say truly to any, and marvelling at the finished likeness of his figure to cry
out, I am in this picture and this picture in me.

Or in another way:----As if the sweetness of the honey when laid on the tongue should say
of itself, I am in the honey and the honey in me; or as though again the heat that
proceeds naturally from fire, emitting a voice were to say, I am in the fire and the fire
in me. For each of the things mentioned is I suppose divisible in idea, but one in nature,
and the one proceeding by a sort of indivisible and continuous forthcome from the other,
so as to seem to be even severed from that wherein it is. Yet though the force of ideas
regarding these things takes this form, still one appears in the other and both are the
same as regards essence. If then by reason of the unchangeableness of Their Essence, and
the entire exactness in express Image, the Father is in the Son, how will the greater find
place and appear in the Son Who is according to them lesser? But since He is wholly in
Him, altogether Perfect is the Son, Who is able to contain the Perfect and is the express
Image of the Mighty Father.

Chapter IV. Against those who dare to say that the conceived and Natural word in God the
Father is one, and He that is called Son by the Divine Scriptures another: such is the
misconceit of Eunomius' party.

2 This was in the beginning with God. The Evangelist herein made a sort of recapitulation
of what had been already before said. But adding the word This, he is seen all-but crying
aloud. He Who is in the beginning, the Word with the Father, He Who is God of God, He it
is and none other, regarding Whom our august book is set forth. But he seems again not
idly to add to what has been said the words, This was in the beginning with God. For he,
enlightened by the Divine Spirit unto the knowledge of things to come, was not ignorant,
as seems to me and as we may truly say, that certain would appear, perdition's workpeople,
the devil's nets, death's snares leading down to the chambers and depth of hell those who
from unlearning give heed to the things that them belch forth out of an evil heart. For
they will rise up and be valiant against their own head, saying that one is the word that
is conceived in God the Father, and that some other most similar and like to the conceived
one, is the Son and Word through Whom God works all things; in order that He may be
conceived of as word of word and image of image and radiance of radiance.

The Blessed Evangelist then, as though he had already heard them blaspheming and with
reason stirred against the absurd follies of their writings, having already defined, and
by many words, as was due, shewn that the Word is One, and Only and Very, of God and in
God and with God, with flashing eye he adds, This was in the beginning with God, as Son,
that is, with the Father, as inborn, as of His Essence, as Only-Begotten; This, there
being no second. But since I deem that we ought, zealously declaring such impiety, to lay
yet more open their blasphemy, for the greater security of the simpler ones (for he who
has learnt it will give heed and will spring out of its reach, as though a serpent lurking
in the midst of the path), needs will I expose their opinion, after the form of
antithesis. For it shall receive its refutations in order, according to the modes which
God who giveth wisdom to all shall grant.

Eunomius' opinion as to the Son of God. "The Only-Begotten Son of God, says he, is not of
very right His Word, but the conceived word of God the Father moves and is ever in Him;
while the son who is said to have been begotten of Him, becoming recipient of his
conceived word, knoweth all things from having learnt them and, after the likeness of the
former, is called and is word." Then in confirmation, as he imagines, of his blasphemy, he
weaves some such arguments of perverted ideas, that, as it is written, the wretched man
may be holden with the cords of his sins. "If the Son Himself, says he, be the Word
Natural and Conceived in God the Father, and is Consubstantial with Him Who begat Him,
what hinders the Father too from being and being called Word, as Consubstantial with the
Word?" And again: "If the Son be the Word of God the Father and there is none other than
He, by means of what word, says he, is the Father found saying to Him: Thou art My Son,
this day have I begotten Thee? For it is very clear that not without a word did the Father
address Him, since every thing that is uttered, is altogether uttered in word, and no
otherwise. And the Saviour Himself somewhere says, I know the Father and keep His saying,
and again, The word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's Which sent Me. Since then
the Father addresses Himself to Him in word, and He Himself acknowledges, one while that
He keeps the Father's word, at another again, that the Jews heard, not His word, but the
Father's; how will it not, he says, be confessed beyond a doubt, that the Son is other
than the word that is conceived or that stands in motion of the mind, whereof
participating and replete, the utterer and exponent of the Father's Essence, that is the
Son, is called word?"

Such ills then does the foolish man sow to himself and gainsaying all the Divine
Scriptures at once is not ashamed, shewing that true is that which is written of himself.
When the wicked man cometh into the depth of evils, he despiseth. For verily exceeding
deep unto naughtiness hath the fighter against God of his folly dug, refusing the
uprightness that is of truth, and halting with the rottenness of his own arguments. For
that the Only-Begotten Son of God the Father is of very right His Word, we shall know by
the subjoined. Refutation in order of the misconceit of Eunomius. Slow to learn is the
silly heretic. For how into a malicious soul will wisdom at all enter? or what, tell me,
can be more malicious than such men, who, as it is written, turn away their ears from the
truth and run more easily unto the fables of their own cogitations, that justly too they
may hear, uttering things not of the Divine Scriptures, Woe to them that prophesy of their
own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord? For who speaking out of the mouth of the
Lord calleth Jesus Anathema? which thing indeed some do in unbridled haughtiness against
the doctrines of piety, and as one of the holy Prophets said, perverting all equity. For
they say that the natural and conceived word in God the Father is one, him that is called
Son and Word again another: and they bring in support of their own, as they deem, opinion,
but more truly, their unbridled impiety, our Lord Jesus Christ in His discourses with the
Jews saying, I know the Father and keep His word: and moreover that which was said to Him
by the Father, From the womb before the Day-star begat I Thee. Then they say belching
forth the venom of their own father, If the speaker is other than he whom he addresses,
and the Father addresses the Son by word, the innate word wherewith the Father conversed
will be other than the Son. And again:

If, says he, the Son Himself declared that He keeps the Father's word, how will not he
that keepeth be other than that which is kept? To this it is perhaps not hard to reply
(for the Lord will give utterance to them that evangelize with much power). But those who
are sick of such unlearning ought to remember Him Who says, Ah they who leave the paths of
uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, and for us it is meet that we should cry unto
our Guide Who is in the heavens, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity. For vanity of
a truth and rubbish and nought else are the vain utterances of their uninstructedness. For
not as though He had another word of the Father in Himself did the Son say that He kept
the Father's word, nor yet did He declare that He had come to us, bringing him with Him as
though a pedagogue, but as Alone in-being in the Father by Nature, and having again
likewise in Himself the Father, none else intervening, I, says He, in the Father and, the
Father in Me, not the innate, nor yet any other word, but the Father, in Me. How then
ought one to conceive of what was said by Him to the Jews, may one ask us, and that with
reason. To this we say with truth what comes up upon our mind.

The Saviour was teaching the most incredulous people of the Jews and, drawing by little
and little His hearers from the worship of the law, did ofttimes call out to them, I am
the Truth, all but saying, Throw off, sirs, the yoke of the law, receive the spiritual
worship; let shadow now depart, type recede afar, the Truth hath beamed. But He did not
seem to all to be doing rightly, subverting Moses' precepts, yea rather leading them to
what was more true, so that some even cried, If this man were of God, He would not have
broken the Sabbath, which was to openly condemn of sin Him Who knew it not. To such like
follies then of the Jews He replying puts away all boast in His words, and lowlily and
darkly designs to teach them, that the Son Who knows not sin would not work ought other
than seemed good to God the Father; lest saying more nakedly, I know not sin, He should
again stir them up to stone Him. For they straightway boiling with wrath would have sprung
upon Him saying, Not to sin belongs to God Alone: Thou then being a Man, utter not the
things that beseem God Alone. Which thing they even did at another time, saying that with
reason do they stone Him, because being a Man He makes Himself God. Obscurely did the
Saviour, in that He was both Man and as under the law with those who were under the law,
say that He kept the Father's word, all-but saying, I will never transgress the Father's
Will. For by stepping aside from the Divine law is sin born, but I know not sin Who am God
by Nature. Therefore I offend not the Father in My teaching. For the rest let no one find
fault with Him Who is by Nature Lawgiver, but because of His Likeness unto us is Law-
keeper. But He says that He knows the Father, not simply as do we, only the very same
thing more simply for that He is God, but from what Himself is does He declare that He
understands the Nature of the Father. But since He knows that He Who begat Him knows not
to endure change, He knows, it is plain, that Himself is Unchangeable of an Unchangeable
Father. And that which knows not change, how can it be said to sin, and not rather to
stand unswerving in its own natural endowments?

Yain then is the accusal of the Jews imagining that the Son thinks ought beside the
Counsel of the Father: for He keeps, as He says, His word, and by Nature knows not
sinning: for He knows that the Father cannot suffer this, with Whom He is Consubstantial
as Very Son. But since they meet this by citing what has been annexed to their objection,
From the womb before the Day-star begat I Thee, come let us unfold the word of piety as to
this also. For not because the Father says such things to the Son, ought we therefore to
think, that there is in Him an innate word and to conceive of the Son as other than it.
But first of all let us think this with ourselves that a prophet versed in uttering
mysteries in the Spirit puts on for us the person of the Son, and introduces Him hearing
of the Father, Thou art My Son, and what follows. And the form of speech, in that it is
constructed after human fashion, will not I presume at all compel us to conceive of two
words, but referring to our own habits [of speech] the unavoidable arrangement herein, we
shall blame, if we do rightly, the weakness of our own nature, which has neither words,
nor modes of idea which accurately serve unto the mysteries that are above us, or that are
adequate to express faultlessly things more Divine:

and to the Divine Nature again we shall attribute the superiority over our mind and
speech, not conceiving of Its relations exactly as they are spoken of, but as befit It and
as It wills. Or if any of the unholy heretics imagine that we unrightly abuse such words,
and do not admit that the form of speech comes up to our usage of it, they will rightly
hear: Let the Father be conceived of as also begetting as we do, let Him not deny the womb
and the pangs of birth. For from the womb begat I Thee, says He to the Son. But perchance,
yea rather of a certainty, they will say that from the likeness to us the Father's True
Begetting of the Son is signified. Therefore let the other too be piously understood, even
if it be uttered in human guise, and their bitter and unholy difficulty is solved.

And these things were, I suppose, sufficient. But since we thought that we ought to smite
down the difficulties devised of their stubbornness (as it were some swarm of foes), with
the uprightness of pious dogmas, come let us now bringing them forward in the manner
befitting each, raise up against each its opponent, and with more zealous thoughts let us
arm against them the ever victorious truth. The objection again, as from them, shall be
set forth in order before the arguments which confute it, inciting the vigilance of the
argument to proceed to more accurate test, and like the rush of some mountain-torrent,
ever bearing down headlong the good readiness of the readers to desire ever to learn the
answer. Oppositions or objections, as from the heretics. "If there exist not, says he, in
God the Father a word essential and conceived, other than the Only-Begotten Son That is of
Him, Who is also called word in imitation of that one, the result will be absurd, and we
who deem we think rightly must needs confess, that if the Word is Consubstantial with the
Father and the Father with the Word, there is nothing yet to hinder the Father from being
and being called word, as Consubstantial with the Word."

Refutation of this. No argument, O most excellent, will ever constrain us to think that we
ought to believe and call the Father Word, or even to believe that He could be so, because
He is Consubstantial with the Word. For in no wise will things that are of the same
essence admit of a mutual interchange, and receive a sort of mixture, as from one into the
other, so that the things named could be reduced from many into one, or from duality into
unity. For not because our forefather Adam was consubstantial with the son born of him,
will father therefore advance unto son, son again mount up into father; but being one with
him as far as regards the unity of essential quality, he will retain what is his own: and
he who is of any father will be conceived of as a son, and again the begetter of any will
clearly be father. But if ye imagine that ye are constructing a clever argument hereupon,
and that consubstantiality will surely constrain consubstantial to be one with
consubstantial, and will suffer no distinction to prevail, so that each should exist by
itself and in whatever it is, what was it persuaded the Judge of all not to punish the
father for the son, nor to demand of the son satisfaction for the father? For the soul,
says he, that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father,
neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son.

But since the sentence of Him Who judges righteously does not bring down the father,
albeit consubstantial with the son, into the position of sonship, nor yet does it bring up
the son into the condition of fatherhood, but knoweth each individually, not this
progressing into that, nor that stepping into this; it is I suppose evident, that no
argument will constrain God the Father, because He is Consubstantial with the Word, to
change into being the Word. For He abideth wholly in Himself, that is Father, even though
He Who is begotten of Him be conceived to be and be Word and therefore Son, that things
Divine may not appear in worse state than ours are. Another in equal guise with the
objection, by the method of reductio ad absurdum. The Son, as having no difference from
His Father, but being His most exact Likeness and the express Image of His Person, is
found saying to His disciples, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. But if He being
thus, is Consubstantial with the Father, and things consubstantial admit of utter
confusion with one another, there will be nothing it seems to hinder the Son from being
conceived of as Father, in that He is Consubstantial with the Father, and capable of
passing over into this, nought hindering it, if consubstantiality suffice unto this kind
of change or transposition. Let the Son then be conceived of as Father, and let Him say,
as now being so, to the real Father, From the womb before the Day-star begat I Thee; and
let Him assume to Himself every word in short that belongs to the Father. When this at
length has taken place, every thing is now thrown into confusion, and That Which ever so
existeth, I mean the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity will be reduced to Unity, if That
which rightly and separately belongs to Each vanishes on account of the Con-
substantiality, and the sameness of nature overthrows the distinction of Persons. But this
is absurd. Hence the Father will not be the Word, because Consubstantial with the Word,
but will abide unchanged, being What He is, even though He have Co-nature or
Consubstantiality with His Own Word. And their objection has been proved to be nought.

Another. If every word be the word of some one, pouring it forth from the tongue, that is,
or belching it forth and bringing it up from the heart; and the Father be Word, because He
is Consubstantial with the Word: He will be His own word, or rather no one's, or will even
have no existence at all (for how will there be word, when he whose word it is, is not?).
But this is absurd: for never will the Divine and Untaint Nature be receptive of non-
being, nor will the Father ever pass into the Word, even though He be Consubstantial with
the Word, but will remain Father, Whose Wordalso the Son is. Another. If the Divine Nature
be believed non-recipient of all turn and change as regards Essence, how will the Father,
leaving His own position, pass into being the Word? For He will be recipient of change,
suffering it as of necessity, and will not be the same, as not keeping what He was from
the beginning. But if this be absurd (for to change is wholly foreign from the Divine
Nature), the Father will not have the change into the Word, but will be Father ever,
having immutability and unchange as God.

Another as of the same, at length. The Only-Begotten Word and Son of God, shewing that He
is Very God of Very God the Father says, All things that the Father hath are Mine. But
though the Son is Heir of all the properties that are in the Father of Nature, as being of
Him by Nature, yet He will never have that of being Father (for this too is one thing that
belongs to the Father); but the Son will remain bereft of nought that is inherent in the
Father, though He be not deemed of as Father, but having in Himself perfectly all the
properties and endowments of the Father's Essence. Applying this very same method of
reasoning to the Person of the Father also, we say that He has all the properties of the
Son by Nature, yet not the power of passing into sonship and into being Word, but that as
un-turning by Nature He remains what He is, that in addition to being God the Father, He
may be also without change, having Unchanged in Himself the Word That appeared from Him,
the Son.

Another. God the Lawgiver found fault with certain by the holy Prophets saying, They have
put no difference between the holy and profane. For great indeed is the difference or
contrariety of manners which is seen between them by those who will discern. But if it be
admissible to commingle the nature of things consubstantial one with another, and things
that are in separate and individual persons can run off to whatever they please of
congenerate or connatural;----what is there to separate the profane from the holy, if the
distinction of separate being or of who one is, is never seen, but one exists in another
because of sameness of essence? Be then (the knowledge in regard to each being hence
indifferent), all jumbled up together, and let the traitor Judas be Peter or Paul, because
consubstantial with Peter and Paul; be Peter again or Paul, Judas, because consubstantial
with him. But so to think is most unreasoning; and the being of the same substance will by
no means take away the difference of things congenerate or connatural from one another.
Our weakness then will not so set itself to contend with the Divine Essence, as to compel
God the Father to be called and be the Word, because He is Consubstantial with the Word.
For He abides ever Father, in no wise able to lose the distinction of what He is in regard
to this, nor yielding to sameness of Essence that He should possess nothing distinctively.
And He will no way wrong the Son by this, but rather will shew Him as His own, and
possessing from Him by Nature the Unturning and Unchangeableness of Him That begat Him,
both by His possessing properly and alone Sonship and not being changed into the Father,
even as neither does He into Son.

Opposition, or another objection as on the part of the heretics. "Not reasonably, say
they, do ye blame as not thinking rightly those who say that the Word innate in God the
Father is other than the Son, although ye hear Him clearly say in the Gospel narrative, I
know Him and keep His word. But if, as Himself affirmed, He keeps the Father's word, other
in all respects, I suppose, and of necessity will he be than him; since needs must the
distinction of being other exist between him who keeps and that which is kept." Different
solutions in order shewing clearly that the Son is the Word of God the Father. If the
Only-Begotten Son of God the Father is not Himself His Word, but some other than He, which
they call conceived, exists in God, let those who put forth this contrary opinion tell us
whether the word which is the conception of their own ignorance be hypostatic or no. For
if they say that it exists of itself conceived of as in separate being, they will surely
confess that there are two sons: but if they say that it has no existence, then, since
nothing any longer conies between and severs the Son, how will He be third from the Father
and not rather next Him, as Son with Father?

Another by the same considerations. The opponents define that there is in God the Father a
word, the conceived, by means of which, according to their most unlovely imagination, the
Son is taught the counsel of the Father. But how great folly their dogma hereupon has, we
must see. "We must consider the argument about this matter thus. The name father, has of
necessity no mean in relation to the son. For what will be the mean of father as regards
the son, or again of son as regards the father? But if, according to their unlearning,
there severs the Son from the Father an intervening will and a conceived word, which they
say is interpretative thereof, no longer will the Father be conceived of as altogether
father nor yet the Son as son, if we conceive that the will of God and the word that
interprets it, exist in their own hypostases. But if we grant that these are without
hypostasis, then the Son is in God the Father without any thing mediate and next to Him;
where then will the conceived word retire, or what place will the will have, conceived of
as other than the Son?

Another by the reductio ad absurdum. We believe that the Holy and Adorable Trinity is
Consubstantial, even if the madness of the heretics will it not. But I think that there
ought to be admitted with regard to things consubstantial, a likeness also with one
another in all things, in regard to natural properties. If then there be, according to the
uncounsel of some, in God the Father some conceived word other than the Son, the Son too
will surely have a conceived word in Himself, as being His Likeness and the unchangeable
Express Image of His Person, as it is written: the Holy Ghost will have one equally with
Him, according to the equal analogy of conceptions. The Trinity then has come to be in
double, and the Divine Nature is shewn to be compound. But this is absurd. But in simple
essences, there is nothing whatever save themselves. Nothing then will hinder the Holy and
Consubstantial Trinity from being closely connected, nought intervening. Another at
length. When Divine Scripture puts forth nouns with the article prefixed, then it means
some one thing which alone is properly and truly that which it is said to be; but when it
does not prefix the article, it makes a more general declaration of every thing that is so
called, as for example (for our discourse shall attain clear demonstration) many are
called gods, but when God is spoken of with the article it signifies Him Who alone and
properly is so;

more simply and without the article, one perchance of those called hereto by grace. And
again there are many men. But when the Saviour says with the article, The son of man, He
signifies Himself as one picked out of ten thousand. Since then names have this character
in Divine Scripture, how ought we to understand, In the beginning was the Word? For if
every word of God is hereby meant as being in the beginning, let them shew it, and it is
we who are the triflers. But if the Evangelist prefixing the article, signifies One and
that is so properly, crying, In the beginning was the Word, why strive they in vain,
bringing in another besides, only that they may expel the Son from the Essence of the
Father? But we ought, considering the absurdity herein, to refuse the uncounsel of those
who think otherwise. Another, shewing that not after the conceived word, as they say, is
the Son formed, but He is the Likeness of the Father Himself. If the Only-Begotten Son of
God is and is called, according to them, therefore Word, because, receiving the conceived
word of the Father, He is as it were formed thereafter, why is He not found to say to His
Disciples, I and the word of the Father are one, He that hath seen Me hath seen the word
of the Father? But since overstepping all things, He likens Himself Alone to the Father
Alone, none intermediate coming forward to the Likeness, the Son will be conceived of as
likening Himself to Him Who begat Him, and to none other than Him. Opposition, as from the
opponents. "We find, they say, the Son to be other than the conceived word of God, giving
heed not to our own thoughts thereon, but to considerations from the Divine Scripture. For
what shall we say when we hear the Son saying to the Father, Glorify Thy Son, the Father
again answering and saying, I have both glorified, and will glorify again? Shall we not
altogether acknowledge that the Father replies to the Son in a word? How then is not he
through whom the Father answers the Son other than He?"

Different solutions to this in order. Worthy of utter marvel, yea rather of mourning too,
are the unholy heretics, and moreover that one should say over them that which is spoken
in the Prophets: Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him, but weep sore for him that
thinketh and sayeth such things respecting the Only Begotten. For what more wretched than
such, if they fancied that this was actually and truly the voice of the Father, which not
only the Saviour heard, but also this crowd of the Jews which stood around, yea rather the
choir of the holy disciples? For they should rather have imagined God-befitting
excellencies, and not have attempted to submit things above us to the laws that guide our
affairs. For upon the bodily hearing strikes a bodily voice, and noise which through the
lips is emitted into the air, or contrived by any other instrument. But the Will of the
Father, in ineffable voice gently and as it were in the mind revolved, the Son Alone
knoweth Who is in Him by Nature as His Wisdom. But to suppose that God uses a voice
consisting in sound is wholly incredible, if we would retain to the Nature That is above
all things Its superiority to the creation. Besides, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says
that this was not the voice of God the Father, and moreover shews that He needs no
interpretation from another to be able to learn the Father's will saying, This voice came
not because of Me, but for your sakes.

He should rather have said, my good friends, if ye are right in holding such opinions
regarding Him, Ye have heard with Me the voice of the Father; but now, turning His
declaration right round to the exact contrary, He avers that He had no need of the voice,
but asserts that it came rather for their sakes, not that it was uttered by the Father,
but came and that for their sakes. And if God the Father works all things through Him,
through Him altogether was this also, yea rather He was Himself the voice, not to Himself
interpreting the disposition of the Father (for He knew it as Son), but to the hearing of
the by-standers, that they might believe. Another. If they say that the Son needs some
innate word, that thereby He may be taught the Will of God the Father, what will become of
Paul who says, Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God? For how is the Son the
Wisdom of the Father, if lacking in wisdom He receive perfection from another, through
learning what forsooth He knows not? or how must one not needs say, that the wisdom which
is in the Father is not perfect? and if the Son be the Wisdom of the Father, how can His
Will be conceived of as other than He? We come then to say that the Will of God the Father
is not perfected in wisdom. But great is the impiety of this, and full of blasphemy the
statement. Not therefore as partaker of instruction from another does the Son know what
belongs to His own Father, but as Himself the Word and the Wisdom and the Will, does He
search all things, yea, the deep things of God, as it is written concerning the Spirit
too.

Another. As the Likeness and the exact express Image of the Father do the Divine
Scriptures introduce to us the Son: and the Saviour Himself saith, He that hath seen Me
hath seen the Father. But if with that likeness to Him, He knows not of Himself what is in
Him, but needs so to speak expositions from another in order to learn it, it is time to
think that the Father Himself is in the same case, if He is in the Likeness of the Son,
and He will Himself too need one to unfold to Him what lies hid in His Offspring. And thus
in addition to the absurdities that result from hence, the Divine Nature becomes also a
recipient of ignorance. But since it is impious thus to think, we must betake ourselves to
more fitting thoughts: for this clearly is what is profitable and helpful. Another. The
Spirit, says the blessed Paul, searcheth all things, yea the deep things of God; and he
adds, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?
even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God That is in Him. Since then
the Holy Spirit Which accurately discerneth all things, is Spirit not only of the Father,
but of the Son too, how can He having within Him by Nature the Spirit Which knoweth all
things be yet ignorant of ought that is in the Father? Superfluous then in truth does it
plainly appear to imagine that the Son learns of another the Will of the Father; and
utterly will vanish the need of a word to mediate in vain, according to their ill-
instructedness. For the Son knows all things of Himself.

Another, by the method of reductio ad absurdum. They who accuse the Essence of the Only-
Begotten, saying that He knew not the Will of the Father, but made use of in order to
learn, another teacher, the word invented by them, which they call conceived, let them
tell us, if they think that their own opinion hereupon ought to prevail, whether they will
say that the conceived word is by nature equal to the Son (for let it be supposed to have
a separate existence of itself) or not equal, but inferior perchance or even superior. If
then they suppose it inferior, they will commit impiety against the Father Himself also:
for there will be of a surety in Him what is worse than He, and other than He, the
conceived word. But if they do not say worse, but shall allot to it a superiority to the
Son, the charge against the Son will operate two-fold against the Father. For first of all
He will be found to have begotten what is in worse condition than Himself. Then moreover
He too will have the conceived word superior to Him, if the Father is Consubstantial with
the Son who according to them has got an inferior position. But it is likely I suppose
that the opponents will start back from the blasphemy that results from either
alternative: and will say that the conceived word of the Father is equal to the Son as
regards essence. The question then is at an end. For how will the one teach the other, as
one who knows one who does not know, if both are equal by nature? The argument of these
people being then on all sides weak, it will be superfluous to imagine that the Son has
any mean, and not rather to believe that He is in God the Father, God the "Word Who was in
the beginning.

Another. The blessed Paul says that in the Son are hid the treasures of all wisdom and all
knowledge. But if he is true in saying such things, how yet shall we suppose that He
needed teaching from another, or in whom shall we any more seek perfectness in knowledge,
if He Who has it all is made wise by another? how is he Wisdom who is made wise? But since
we must needs give heed not to their words, but to those through the Spirit, and the Son
hath, as Paul saith, in Himself the treasures of wisdom and of all knowledge, not from any
one else will He know the things whereby He is wisdom, but being in the Father He knows
all that is the Father's, as His Wisdom.

Chapter V. That the Son is by Nature Creator with the Father, as being of His Essence, and
not taken to Him as a minister.

3 All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made. The blessed
Evangelist, having overthrown the intricate objections of the unholy heretics, and having
completed his subtil and most exact utterance respecting the Only-Begotten, comes to
another snare of the devil compounded of the ancient deceit, and putting forth to us the
sting of the polytheic error, which has wounded and cast down many, and widening the way
of perdition, and throwing open the broad and spacious gate of death, heaped up souls of
men in herds unto hell and set rich food as it were before the devil and brought before
him choice meat. For since the children of the Greeks applying themselves to the wisdom of
the world, and having plenteously in their mind the spirit of the ruler of this world,
were carried away unto polytheic error, and perverted the beauty of the truth and, like to
those who walk in mist and darkness, went down to the pit of their own ignorance, serving
lifeless idols, and saying to a stock, Thou art my father, and to a stone, Thou hast
brought me forth:

others again transgressing akin to them, devising nevertheless a more polished error,
deemed that they ought to worship the creature more than the Creator, and lavished the
glory that befitted the Divine Nature Alone on the elements that were made by It, of
necessity does the Divine introduce to us the Only-Begotten as Maker and Creator by
Nature, saying that all things were made by Him and that without Him nothing passed into
being, that he might close for the future the entrance for their deceits, and might shew
to them that know Him not the Creator of all things, and by the very words wherein he says
that the creation was made, might clearly teach that other than it is He Who called it
into being, and by His Ineffable Power brought things that are from not being unto birth.
For thus at length was it possible by the beauty of the creatures proportionally to see
the Maker, and to recognize Him Who is in truth God, through Whom all things have been
already made, and made are preserved. Against the false-worship then of the Greeks do I
deem that he thus well arrayed the Gospel word, and for this cause do we believe that the
Only-Begotten was introduced by the voice of the saint as Maker and Creator.

But since it is meet to consider the crooked inventions of the heretics, I think that we
ought looking to their ways too to say again a little. All things, says he, were made by
Him, and without Him was not anything made. This God-befitting dignity too does he put
about the Son, on all sides shewing that He is Consubstantial with God Who begat Him and
saying that all things that belong to Him by Nature are in His Offspring: that He may be
conceived of as truly God of God, not (as we) having the appellation adventitious and
accruing to us by grace alone, according to the words, I have said, Ye are gods and all of
you are children of the most High. For if all things were made by Him, He will be Other
than they all. For in this, All things, there is nothing which is not seen among all
things. As the blessed Paul too is found to have understood the all things: for when in
one of his Epistles he was discoursing of our Saviour and said that all things were put in
subjection under His feet, excellently does he subjoin, For in that he saith all, he left
nothing that is not put under Him. Therefore since we believe that all things were made by
the Son, we will not think that He is one of all, but will conclude that He is external to
all, and severing Him from the nature and kin of things originate, will at length confess
that He is none else save God of God by Nature. For what will intervene between God and
the creature? I do not mean in regard of essence, for much intervenes, but only in regard
to the position of anything that is, in conception.

Or what other position will the Son have, Who surpasses the nature of things made, yea
rather is Himself the Maker? For all things were made "by Him, as by the Power, as by the
Wisdom of God the Father, not hidden in the Nature of Him Who begat Him, as in man is for
instance his innate wisdom and power, but existing separately and by Himself, yet
proceeding according to the ineffable mode of Generation from the Father, that the Wisdom
and Power of the Father may be conceived of as truly-existing Son. But though the blessed
Evangelist says that all things were made through Him, the saying will not I deem at all
minister damage to the words concerning Him. For not because it is said that the things
that are were made through Him, will the Son be introduced as an underworker, or a
minister of others' wills, so that He should be no longer conceived of as being by Nature
Creator, nor will He be one given the power of Creation by some other, but rather being
Himself Alone the Strength of God the Father, as Son, as Only-Begotten, He works all
things, the Father and the Holy Ghost co-working and co-with Him: for all things are from
the Father through the Son in the Holy Ghost. And we conceive of the Father as co-with the
Son, not as though He were powerless to work ought of things that are, but as being wholly
in Him, by reason of unchangeableness of Essence, and His entire kin and the absence of
any medium towards His Natural Procession from Him. As though one were to say that to the
sweet scent of a flower, the flower itself was co-present for the operation of the sweet
scent, since it proceeds from it naturally. But the force of the example is slight and the
Nature That is above all will overpass this too, receiving of it little-impresses of
ideas. Since how shall we understand, My Father worketh hitherto and I work?

For not separately and by Himself does the Son say that God the Father works ought
regarding things that are, and that Himself again likewise works apart from the Father,
the Essence Whence He is after some sort resting: for so the Creator would be two and not
One, if Either work apart and separately. Moreover the Father will be recipient of the
power of not having the Son ever in Him, and the Son likewise will be seen to not have the
Father ever in Him, if it were possible that Either should work apart and separately with
regard to things that are, as we said before, and the Son will not be true, when He says,
I am in the Father and the Father in Me. For it is not, I suppose, merely after likeness
of Essence, that we see the Son in the Father as Express Image, or again the Father in the
Son as Archetype; but we hold that the Son beams forth by Generation from the Essence of
the Father, and is and subsists in It and of It in distinct Being, God the Word: and that
the Father again is in the Son, as in Consubstantial Offspring, Connaturally, yet
severally, according to simply the difference of being, and being conceived of as that
which He is. For the Father remains that which He is, even though He be Connaturally in
the Son, as we say that the Sun is in its brightness.

And the Son again will be conceived of, as not other than He is, even if He be
Connaturally in the Father, as in the sun its brightness. For thus, the Father being
conceived of and being in truth Father, the Son again being and conceived of as Son, the
Holy Ghost having His place with them, the number of the Holy Trinity mounts to One and
the Same Godhead. For how will God be at all conceived of as One, if Each of the Persons
mentioned withdraw into a complete individuality, and, while wholly removed from Connature
and Essential participation with the Other, be called God? Therefore let us conceive of
Father, Son and Spirit, according to the mode of individual being, not mixing up the
difference of the Persons or names in regard to That Which Each IS: but while we reserve
severally to each the being and being called what He IS, and thus believe, referring them
still of Nature to One Godhead, and refusing to hold a complete severance, because the Son
is called the Word and Wisdom and Brightness and Express Image and Might of the Father.
For He is Word and Wisdom, by reason of these being, immediately and without any
intervention, of the mind and in the mind, and because of the reciprocal interpassing into
one another so to say of both. For the mind is seen in word and wisdom, and word in its
turn in the mind, and there is nought that intervenes, or severs the one from the other.
He is called Power again, as being a quality inherent without any interval in those who
have it, and that can nowise be severed from them in the manner of an accident, apart from
the destruction of the subject: Express Image again, as being even connate, and unable to
be severed from the essence of which it is the express image.

Hence since Either is naturally and of necessity in Other, when the Father works the Son
will work, as being His Natural and Essential and Hypostatic Power. Likewise when the Son
works, the Father too works, as the Source, of the Creating Word, Naturally In-existent in
His Own Offspring, even as the fire too in the heat that proceeds from it. It is clear
then, that vainly has been iterated the accusation of the opponents against the Only-
Begotten, who introduce Him to us as creator by having learnt, yea rather as minister too;
because of the Blessed Evangelist saying, All things were made through Him and without
Him, was not anything made. Much do I marvel at the unholy heretics: for whatever seems
any way to undo the Dignity of the Only-Begotten and to shew Him second to Him Who begat
Him, according to their own view, this they hunt with much zeal, and from all sides bring
to it the drugs of their own stubbornness; whatever again are healthfully and rightly said
and bring the Son up to the Glory of the Father, these things they bury most surely in
deep silence, as having one sole aim, to in vain revile Him Who is glorified of all the
creation. For when they hear that All things were made through Him, they hotly bring on
Him the name of service, dreaming that the Son is bond instead of free, and worshipper
rather than Lord. But when they learn that without Him was not anything made, they do not
mount up to think ought great and marvellous of Him. For since it is not in God the Father
to create otherwise than by His own Offspring, Which is His Wisdom and Power, the
Evangelist says that nought at all was made without Him. For therefore is the Only-
Begotten the Glory of God the Father (for He is glorified as Creator through the Son); for
He worketh all things and bringeth into being things that are not.

And well will one conceive of the words, without Him, was not anything made, if he
consider with himself what was said at the creation of man. For Let us make man, says he,
in Our image after Our likeness. For here specially one can behold in the Son of a truth
nought that is lowly, as in a minister according to their phrase. For God the Father does
not command the Word, Make man, but as Co-with Him by Nature and His inseparably so to say
In-existing Co-worker, He made Him also Partaker of His Counsel respecting man, not
anticipating the knowledge that is in the Son in regard to any conception, but as Mind
inseparably and apart from time manifested in the in-imaged and in-existing Word. Let God-
befitting contemplations again be above the reach of the example. Yet we say that He co-
works with the Son, not conceiving as of two severally, lest there be conceived to be two
gods, nor yet as though both together were one, in order that neither the Son be
compressed into Father, nor again the Father into Son, but rather in such sort as if one
allowed to be co-existent in the brightness from light the light whence it flashed forth:
for in such examples the generator seems to be separated in idea from the generated and
that which springs forth from it indivisibly; yet are both one and the same by nature, and
the one in no wise separate from the other. But above this too will God again be, inasmuch
as He is both Super-substantial and has nothing wholly like Him in things originate, that
it should be taken as a image of the Holy Trinity, without any difference, in exactness of
doctrine. But if they deem that the word, through Whom, said of the Son, can bring down
His Essence from Equality and Natural likeness to the Father, so as to be minister rather
than Creator, let those insane consider and come forward and make answer, what we are to
conceive of the Father Himself also, and Whom we are to suppose Him too to be, seeing that
He clearly receives the words through Whom in the Divine Scripture:

for God, says he, is faithful, through Whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son,
and Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God: and again Paul writeth to
some, Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son; and if a son, then an heir through
God . All these then have reference to the Person of God the Father, and no one I suppose
will rush to that extreme of madness (except perchance he hold with the above mentioned),
as to say that the name and fact of service, is reasonably predicated of the very glory of
the Father, because the word through Whom is applied to Him too. For the Divine Scripture
is sometimes indifferent in regard to its words, in no wise wronging the subject thereby,
but applying to the things signified in a less proper sense both the words themselves and
those whereby it deems that they are well explained. But it is well to say of those, that
The glory of the Lord veileth speech. For little in truth is all might of words unto the
exact exposition of the Ineffable and God-befitting glory. Wherefore one must not be
offended at the meanness of the things uttered, but must rather yield supremacy, and might
in tongue, and keenness of every mind, to the Divine and unutterable Nature, for thus
shall we be and not in small degree pious.

Chapter VI. That the Son is by Nature Life and therefore not originate, but of the Essence
of God the Father.

4 4 That which was made, in it was Life. Yet doth the Blessed Evangelist make to us his
discourse concerning God the Word, and he seemeth to me profitably to go through all that
pertains to Him by Nature, that he may both put to shame the outrages of the heretics, and
may fortify those who would fain excel in right faith, with reasonings thereunto tending,
not providing from words of worldly wisdom unpersuasion, but in demonstration of the
Spirit marvelling at the beauty of the truth. What he would then teach through the words
before us, is this. He shewed us just now that the Son is by Nature Maker and Creator,
saying that all things were made by Him and that without Him not so much as one thing was
called into being. But since on the creation He bestows not only to be called into being,
but also holds it together when made through Himself, immingling in some way Himself with
those who have not by their own nature eternity of being, and becoming life to those that
are, that having become they may abide, and that each may be preserved according to its
own limit of nature;----needs does he say, That which was made, in it was life. Not only,
says he, were all things made by Him, but also whatever was made, in it was the Life, that
is, the Only-Begotten Word of God, the Beginning and Subsistence of all things both
visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly and infernal. For Himself being the by-Nature
Life, bestows manifoldly on things that are, being and life and motion, not in any way of
partition and change passing into each one of things that are by nature distinct: but
their nature, viewed by itself, is variously fashioned by the ineffable Power and Wisdom
of the Creator, while One is the Life of all passing into each, in such sort as befits it,
and it is able to partake thereof.

But since that which is brought from not being into being must needs also decay, and that
which has beginning surely hasteth unto its end (for to the Divine and All-superior Nature
Alone beseemeth the being preceded by no beginning and being free from ending): the
Creator wisely deviseth for the weakness that is in things made, and contriveth for them
by His skill an eternity. For the perpetual succession unto each of its like, and the
natural progression of things connatural or kin unto one another looking ever towards
onward course, make the creation ever-visible and ever-co-enduring with God its Maker. And
this (contrivance) is that every one of things that are, soweth seed in itself after its
kind and after its likeness, according to the unspeakable sentence of its Creator. In all
then was the Life; for this is our subject. But, excellent sir, may one with reason say to
the heretic warring against the truth, what will you say to this too, when you hear him
who bears within him the Spirit say, that in all things that were made was the Life, that
is, the Word That is in the beginning? Will you dare to say now too, that the Son is not
of the Essence of God the Father, that He may be deemed of as originate and created? How
then will one not cry out against thine unlearning, O thou, and that with justice?

For if in things that were made was the Word, as Life by Nature, immingling Himself by
participation with things that are, He is then Other than those wherein He is believed to
be. But He being by Nature Other than what the creation is, how will He not be the God
over all? But if you remain shameless, and cease not to imagine that originate is the Son
Who is in things made, as Life:----first of all He will be conceived of as being somewhat
in Himself, then besides. He will Himself be partaker of Himself 5, and Life, if being in
things made, He be conceived to be Himself too one of them. But the fighter against God
sees surely himself too, how great the absurdity of thinking thus. Therefore if the Word
Who quickens them is by participation in things originate, He will not be Himself too
among the participators, but other than they. And if so, not originate, but in them as by
Nature Life.

This again we shall see by the subjoined considerations. Thoughts or arguments. If the Son
be not of the Essence of God the Father, but from without He have subordinated Him
according to them, He is originate and made. How then does He quicken all things, Who is
among things made? Or what distinction shall we find any longer in the Divine Nature? or
how does the most wise Paul say, as something admirable of Him That is by Nature God, Who
quickeneth all things? For if the Son being originate, quickeneth all things, the creation
quickeneth itself, in no wise needing thereto God its Maker. There is then nothing in God
more than in the creation; For it inworketh not less than God can do. But this is absurd.
Not originate then is the Son, but God and therefore by Nature Life also. Another. The
Psalmist marvelleth exceedingly and that with reason at the Divine Nature, and in
particular attributeth to It a most fair dignity saying, For with Thee is the Fountain of
life. But if the Father have set the Son below Him, and have Him not of His own Nature,
and He even being so, quickens things originate and is by Nature Life as quickening, why
vainly strives the Psalmist saying that the fountain of life is with God Alone? For the
nature of things originate also is recipient of this, if the Son, albeit not of the Divine
Essence according to the uncounsel of some, quickens. But this is absurd. Therefore Life
by Nature is the Son, as God of God, and Life of Life.

Another. If the Son being by Nature Life be originate and created, as not having His Being
of the Essence of God the Father, according to their fantasy, the nature of things
originate will be recipient of being and being called life, and all things will be life in
potential, even if they have not yet the exercise of the thing itself. For that which has
the natural power of being ought, will surely be so I ween, even if it be not so as yet;
for it has the power inherent in its nature. When then the being life is common to the
creature, the special and alone prerogative of none, why vainly does the Son vaunt of
Himself, I am the Life? for He should, I suppose, have rather said, I am along with you
the life. This would I suppose have been truer, if being indeed originate He is Life too.
But since He puts about Himself Alone as His special good the being Life, it is at length
clear that He classes Himself, not with things originate, but with the Divine Essence of
the Father, whereto the being Life also pertains.

Another. That which is participate of life is not in its own right life, for it is clearly
in it as other than itself. If then the Son is by participation in things originate as
Life, He will be other than the things that are participate of Him and lack life.
Therefore not originate is He, nor seeking to be quickened by another. He is therefore God
as quickening; but if so, He will be confessedly of the Essence of the Father, if we
worship One God, and serve none other than Him Who is. Another. Accurately testing the
nature of things that are, we see God and the creation and nought else besides. For
whatever falleth short of being God by Nature, that is surely originate; and whatever
escapeth the catalogue of creation, will surely be within the limits of Deity. Since then
we have well established this, let them tell us who thrust forth the Son from the Essence
of God the Father, how He can quicken as Life, seeing that the Divine Nature has this as
its own property, and yields it to none else. But if being originate He can be Life also,
the grace of the excellence will surely overtake all things that are originate, and all
will be by nature life. What need will they have therefore of participation of the Son, or
what more will they gain hence? for they too possess the being by nature life. But this is
not true, but they partake of necessity as needing life, of the Son. Alone then is the
Only-Begotten by Nature Life, and therefore will He not be reckoned among things
originate, but will mount up unto the Nature of Him Who begat Him: for Life by Nature is
the Father too.

Another. The Son being by Nature Life, is either Other than the creation, I mean by
nature, or con-natural with it. If then He be connatural and consubstantial, how will He
not lie in saying, I am the Bread of Life Which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life
unto the world? for the creation hath from its own the being life, but life is
imparticipate of life, that it may shew itself life. But if He is not connatural, He will
also escape being originate, withdrawing from the creation together with Himself His own
proper good also. For the creation will not be by nature Life, but rather lacking and
participate of life. Another. If the Son being by Nature Life is connatural with things
made, by reason of not being of the Essence of God the Father, according to their speech,
wherefore does the blessed Psalmist say that the heavens shall perish, and shall wax old
like a garment: but to Him did he attribute His own proper prerogative, crying aloud, But
Thou art the Same and Thy years shall have no end? For either He will perish and fail
along with us, as connatural, and will no longer be conceived of as Life, or our natural
connection with Him will draw up us too to be ever the same and to unfailing number of
years. But verily He shall be ever the same, and we shall fail: He is therefore not
originate as we; but since He is of the Life by Nature He will also quicken as Life the
things that lack life.

Another. If nought is participate of itself, but the creation partakes of the Son as Life;
He is not the creation, nor yet is the creation Life, which the Son is. Another. If to
quicken is one thing, to be quickened another, as action and passion, and the Son
quickens, the creation is quickened: therefore not the same is Son and creation, since
neither is the inworker with the inwrought.

Chapter VII. That the Son is by Nature Light and therefore not originate, but of the
Essence of God the Father, as Very Light from Very Light.

And the Life was the light of men. In these words too does the blessed Evangelist shew us
that the Son is by Nature God and Essentially Heir of the good things of Him Who begat
Him. For having taught before that being by Nature Life, He was in all things that were
made by Him, holding them together and quickening them and granting them of His
unutterable Power to pass from not being into being, and preserving them when made, he
advances to another train of ideas, from all sides minded to lead us by the hand unto the
apprehension of the truth, as was right. Therefore in things made was the Word, as Life.
But since the rational living creature among them on earth recipient both of mind and
knowledge and participant of the wisdom that is from God, is man, needs does the Spirit-
bearer shew us clearly the Word as Bestower of the wisdom that is in man, that God the
Father may be conceived of being all things in all through the Son;----life in them that
lack life, light again and life in them that lack life and light. And therefore he says,
And the Life was the light of men, that is, God the Word Who quickeneth all things, the
Life in all that are, both enlighteneth the rational creature, and lavisheth understanding
upon those who are recipient of understanding: that so that may be kept and have full
force that is said to the creature, for what hast thou that thou didst not receive?

For nought of wealth from itself hath the originate and created nature, but whatever it is
seen to possess, this is surely of God, Who bestoweth both being, and how one ought to be.
And well was the was put of the life, that it might signify in every way the eternal Being
of the Word, and might cut off the triflings of those void of understanding, who introduce
to us the Son, of the things that are not, which manifestly warreth against the whole of
Divine Scripture. In regard then of the Eternity of the Word with the Father;----having
already sufficiently gone through it both in the present Book, and in that called the
Thesaurus, we deem that we may be silent. But what the mind of the words before us
introduces, this with all readiness examining to the extent of our power, we will be
diligent to profit both ourselves and those who shall hereafter read it, God again opening
to us both doors and a mouth to our words.

What then will the fighter against Christ say to us, when he learns that the Life, that
is, the ever-living God the Word, is the Light of men? What arguments will he sling at us,
when we come forward and say, If the Son be not by Nature God, and Fruit of the Essence
That begat Him, if He have not beamed forth to us Very Light from Very Light, but Himself
too being from without is subordinated according to your unlearning: He is connatural with
things made, and will in no wise escape being originate. How then, O ye filled full of all
folly, doth He illuminate, they receive illumination from Him? For is not that which
illuminates one thing, that which is illuminated another? but this is plain and clear to
every one. For if we grant that they are the same, as regards kind of essence and the mode
of existence, what is there more in that which has power of illumining, what again less in
that which lacketh light? For whatsoever cometh, will come to both of them, and apart to
each, and that which is in need of light will be light, and the light will not differ from
the illumined. But great is the confusion of ideas manifest herein, and necessity of
reason severs each of the things named and puts in its own proper nature the supplier
herein apart from the supplied. Not therefore connatural with things made is the Son, but
He will abide in the Essence of the Father, being Very Light of Very Light.

And it were nothing hard, by transferring the method of reasoning in the foregoing, which
we made concerning the Son being by Nature Life, and demonstrated that He is Other than
the things wherein He is, to give clear proof in this chapter too.----But in order not to
leave the labour of this to others, nor to appear overmastered by sloth, I myself will
endeavour, so far as I can, to transfer the form of argument used in the foregoing
reasonings. For as in those, He being Life by Nature, is shewn to be Other than those
wherein He is, so here too, said to be and in verity being the Light of men, He will be
found to be Other than things that lack light and partake thereof; as we shall see more
clearly in the following. Proofs by demonstrations, that the Son who illumineth is Other
than the creation that is illumined.

If the Word was in the things spoken of, as Light by Nature, immingling Himself by means
of participation in things that are, He is then Other than the things wherein He is
believed to be. But He That is by Nature Other than what the creation participant of Him
and by Him illumined is, how will He not needs be the God Who is over all? Another. If the
fighter against God says that the Son being by Nature Light is in things originate as
originate, illumining things that lack light:----first of all He will be conceived of as
being in Himself, then besides, He will Himself be partaker of Himself and Light, if being
in things originate, He one and the same be conceived to be of them. But he that has
applied his heart unto wisdom, as it is written, sees surely how great the absurdity of
thinking thus. Therefore if the Word Who illuminateth them is by participation in things
originate, He will not Himself be among the participants and illumined, but Other
therefore than they. And if so, He is then not originate, but as Light by Nature and God
in things that lack Light.

Another. If the Son be not of the Essence of God the Father, but being from without He
have subordinated Him according to them, He is then originate and created: how then is He
in things made, enlightening them? or whatspecial shall we find any longer in the Divine
Essence? or how does the most wise Psalmist say as something marvellous of Him Who is by
Nature God, In Thy Light shall we see light? For if the Son being originate illumines all
things, the creation will illumine itself, having no wise need thereto of God its Maker.
There is then nothing more in God than in the creature, and it inworks no less than God
could do. But this is absurd. The Son then is not originate, but God rather, and therefore
Light by Nature, as is the Father. Another of the same. If the Son being the Light of God
the Father (as is said, In Thy Light shall we see Light and, O send out Thy Light and Thy
Truth), is originate and brought into being, there is no longer ought to hinder, by equal
analogy, all things originate from being called the Light of God the Father. For if the
nature of things created at all admits this, it will be in potential common to them all,
and not the own property of the One Son. But this is absurd: for to the Son Alone will it
pertain to be called and to be the Light of God the Father. Not therefore originate is He,
but Light, as God from God Who illumineth through Him things lacking light.

Another. If the Son being by Nature Light is not of the Essence of the Father, but being
from without is subordinated, according to the uninstructed speech of the fighters against
God, it follows that He is connatural and kin to things created, as having forsooth fallen
away from the Divine Essence. How then is He called and is Light, but of the holy Baptist
it is said, He was not the Light, albeit the blessed Baptist is light in potential, and
not he alone, if it be once granted that the Son being originate, can be by Nature Light?
For that which has once had place in the nature, is I suppose common to each that partakes
of such nature, according to the law of consequence. But John was not Light, the Son
Light. Other therefore by Nature is He and not connatural with things made. Another of the
same. If the Son being by Nature Light is originate and created, as not possessing
forsooth the being of the Essence of God the Father, as some surmise, the nature of things
originate will admit of being and being called light; it will be altogether light
according to the law of potential. For that which has in its nature to be anything, will I
suppose surely be so, even if it have not yet been. Since then the being light is common
to the nature of things originate, and the property in aloneness of none, why in vain does
the Son vaunt of Himself, saying, I am the Light? for He ought I suppose to say, I am with
you the Light. But since He puts it about Himself Alone as His own proper good, joining to
Himself no one else, He clearly classes Himself, not with things originate, but with the
Divine Essence of God the Father, whereto belongs the being by Nature Light..

Another. That which is participate of light is not in its own right the Light; for it is
clearly one thing in another. If then the Son be by participation in things originate, as
Light; He will be other than those that partake of Him and lack Light. Therefore not
originate is He, nor seeking, as things originate, to be illumined by another: it remains
therefore that He is God and able to illuminate. If so, He will be conceived of also as
sprung of the Essence of the Father, if we worship One God, and serve none other than the
True God. Another. Accurately testing the nature of things that are, we behold God and the
creature, and nought else besides. For whatever faileth of being by Nature God, is wholly
originate, and whatever escapeth the category of being made, is wholly and entirely within
the limits of Divinity. Since then we have established this, let them tell us who thrust
forth the Son from being of the Essence of God the Father, how He can illumine as Light,
seeing the Divine Nature retaineth this as Its own, and yields it to none else. But if the
Son being originate, can be also Light, the grace of this excellence will surely overtake
all things originate, and all will be by nature light. What further need then have they of
participation with the Son, or what more will they gain hence, having themselves too the
being by nature light, even as the Son hath it in them? But the creature does need the
Illuminator, not having this of its own. God then by Nature is the Son, and therefore
Light, as able to illumine things that lack Light.

Another. The Son being by Nature Light, is either Other than the creature, in regard that
is of the mode of being, or connatural with it. If then He be cognate and consubstantial,
vainly, as it seems, did He come to us saying, I am come a Light into the world; for the
creation has of its own itself also the being light: but light is impartici-pate of light,
that it may be understood to be light. But if He be not connatural, but the creature lack
light to whom belongs, What hast thou that thou didst not receive? needs will the Son
escape being originate, withdrawing from the creation together with Himself His own proper
good. For the creature will not be by nature light, but rather lacking and participate of
light. Another. If nought be participate of itself and the creature partake of the Son as
Light: He is not a creature, nor yet the creature Light, which the Son is.

Another. If to illumine be one thing, to be illumined another, as action and passion, and
the Son illumines, the creature is illumined; therefore not the same is Son and creature,
since neither is the inworker with the inwrought. 5 And the Light shineth in darkness, and
the darkness comprehended it not. Needs does the most wise Evangelist hasten to expand to
us by this too that is now before us the thought expressed above. For he did not think, I
suppose, that it would suffice to the hearers unto being able to think unerringly of God
the Word, that He is verily the Light of men, by only saying, And the Life was the Light
of men. For it was like I suppose that some would arise who should hear the things uttered
without weighing them, and should moreover set forth or try to teach others also that the
Word of God is indeed verily Light, but not Giver of light to all, but in whomsoever He
will He infuses the light of understanding, approving him who ought to receive it and is
worthy of so bright a gift: and that the nature of the rest of the rational creation
either gets the power of understanding from its natural seed, or God the Father ingrafts
into it mind and understanding, as though the Son were unable to do this. In order then
that God the Word, Who was in God the Father, may be clearly shewn to be both Life and
Light, not of some individually, of others not, but by some ineffable mode of
participation, as wisdom and understanding (which is what is called light in things
rational), immingling Himself in all things that are, that the things rational may become
rational, and things recipient of sense may have sense, which in no other way they could
have had:----needs does he say, And the Light shineth in darkness and the darkness
comprehended it not.

As though he with all exactitude crieth aloud to his hearers after this sort: I said,
sirs, teaching the truth with all my power, that the Life was the Light of men, not that
any should suppose from these words that they who shew themselves righteous and good
receive from another, as the reward of their conduct, the illumination from Him, but that
ye might learn, that as the Word is Life in all things that have been made, quickening
things recipient of life; so He is in them Light also, rendering things recipient of
understanding and sense, what they are. For God the Father through the Son in the Spirit
is all things in all. Darkness he calls the nature that lacks illumination, i. e. the
whole originate nature. For since he calls Him the Light, to shew that the rational
creation which lacks and is imparticipate thereof is other than It, he turns the force of
the epithet used to the very contrary, doing this also, after my judgment, not without an
aim, but considering in himself this above all, that the nature of things originate,
producing nothing whatever from its own self, but receiving its whole being and well-being
such as it is from its Creator, has rightly said to it, What hast thou that thou didst not
receive? And since along with the rest, it has light itself also God-given, not possessing
it does it receive it: but that which has not of itself light, how will it not be the
contrary, or how will it not be called darkness? For that the Light shineth in darkness is
a credible demonstration (yea rather one following from very necessity), that the creation
is darkness, the Word of God Light. For if the nature of things originate receive the Word
of God by participation, as Light, or as of Light: it receives it then as itself darkness,
and the Son shineth in it, as the light doth in darkness, even though the darkness know
not a whit the Light. For this, I suppose, is the meaning of The darkness comprehended it
not.

For the Word of God shineth upon all things that are receptive of His Irradiance, and
illumineth without exception things that have a nature receptive of illumining. But He is
unknown of the darkness. For that which is the rational nature upon earth, I mean man,
served the creature more than the Creator: it comprehended not the Light, for it knew not
the Creator, the Fountain of wisdom, the beginning of understanding, the root of sense.
Things originate possess nevertheless, of His love to man, the light, and are provided
with the power of perception implanted concurrently with their passing into being. But we
must again note here, that no argument will permit to suppose that the Son of God is
originate or created, but in every way does He surpass our measure, and rise above the
nature of the creature, and is wholly Other than they are and far removed as regards
quality of essence, even as the light is not the same as darkness, but soothly contrary
and parted by incomparable diversity into physical alieniety. Having now sufficiently gone
through the method of reasoning hereupon in the foregoing, we will go on to what follows.
6, 7 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to
bear witness of the Light. Having before Explained about God the Word, and most accurately
gone through the things whereby He is shewn to be by Nature Son of God the Father, he
fortifies their faith in what they had already heard by his words. And since (according to
what was said by God through Moses), At the mouth of two and three witnesses shall every
word be established, wisely does he bring in addition to himself the blessed Baptist, and
introduces him along with himself a most noteworthy witness. For he did not suppose that
he ought, even if of gravest weight, to demand of the readers in his book concerning our
Saviour credence above that of the law, and that they should believe him by himself when
declaring things above our understanding and sense.

Therefore the blessed Evangelist himself testifies that The Word was in the beginning and
the Word was God and was in the beginning with God and that all things were made by Him,
and He was in the things made as Life, and that the Life was the Light of men, that by all
these he might shew that the Son is by Nature God. And the Divine Baptist too testifies in
addition to him, crying aloud, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of
our God. For soothly one will say that He is Very God, in Whom is by Nature inherent the
dignity of lordship and it accrues not to any other rightly and truly, since to us there
is one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul saith; and though there be many
called gods by grace and lords both in heaven and earth, yet the Son is One with the
Father Very God.

Therefore, most noteworthy is the pair of holy witnesses, and credence no longer capable
of blame is due to the things said, both as having received the fulness of the law, and
supported by the notability of the persons. For the blessed Evangelist then to say ought
concerning himself, and to take hold of his own praises, were in truth burdensome and
moreover ill-instructed. For he would rightly have heard, Thou bearest record of thyself,
thy record is not true. Therefore he commits to those who know him to form their opinion
of him, and goes to his namesake, doing well in this too, and says that he was sent by
God. For it behoved him to shew that not of his own accord nor with self-invited zeal does
the holy Baptist come to his testimony respecting our Saviour, but yielding to the
commands from above, and ministering to the Divine Will of the Father. Wherefore he says,
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

But we must notice how unerringly and fitly he expressed himself as to each, and
correspondently to the nature of the things indicated. For in the case of God the Word,
was is fitly introduced indicating every way His Eternity, and His being more ancient than
all beginning that is in time, and removing the idea of His having been created. For that
which always is, how can it be conceived of as originate? But of the blessed Baptist,
befittingly does he say, There was a man sent from God, as of a man having an originate
nature. And very unerringly does the Evangelist herein seem to me not merely to say that
There was, but by adding the word a man, to overthrow the most unadvised surmise of some.
For already was there a report bruited of many, commonly saying that the holy Baptist was
not really a man by nature but one of the holy angels in heaven, making use of human body
and sent by God to preach. And the plea for this surmise they found in its being said by
God, Behold I send, My messenger before Thy Face, which shall prepare Thy way; before
Thee. But they err from the truth who imagine thus, not considering that the name of Angel
is indicative of ministry rather than of essence, even as in the history of the blessed
Job messengers 6 one after the other run to announce . his manifold sufferings and
ministering to those incurable afflictions. Something like this does the most wise Paul
himself define respecting the holy angels, writing thus: Are l they not all ministering
spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

John the blessed Baptist then is called an angel by the mouth of the Lord, not as being
actually by nature an angel, but as sent to announce and crying aloud, Prepare ye the way
of the Lord. Very profitably does he declare moreover that the angel was sent by God,
shewing that his witness is mostsure. For he that was sent by God to preach, would not
utter anything in his teaching that was not wholly according to the will of Him Who put
the mission on him. True therefore is the witness as being God-taught. For the most wise
Paul also telling us that he was sent by Jesus Christ, affirmed that he learned the power
of the mystery not of any other, but by revelation of Him Who sent him, signifying the
revelation in sum so to say and briefly, in saying that he was sent by Jesus Christ. Hence
the being God-taught wholly follows on being sent by God. And that freedom from lying is
wholly the aim of the ministers of the truth is undoubted.

The man's name he says was John. It needed that he who was sent should be recognized by
the mark of the name, which introduces, as I suppose, great authenticity to what is said.
For an angel (namely Gabriel that stand in the presence of God, as himself says) when he
declared to Zacharias the good tidings of his birth of Elizabeth, added this to what he
said, namely that his name shall be John. It is I suppose clear and confessed by all that
he was so named of the angel according to the Divine purpose and appointment. How then
will not he who was crowned by God with so great honour be conceived of as above all
praise? Wherefore the mention of his name is profitably and necessarily brought in. But
since the Evangelist has added that the holy Baptist was sent by God for a witness that
all men through him might believe, we will further say when our opponents fall foul and
say, "Why did not all believe the God-sent? how came he who was fore-appointed by the
decree from above to be powerless to persuade any?"----It is meet, sirs, that we should
not blame John for want of zeal herein, but should exclaim against the obstinacy of those
who disbelieved. For so far as pertains to the aim of the herald, and the mode of his
apostolate from above, none would have been found imparticipate in the teaching, nor would
have remained in unbelief: but since there was diversity of disposition in the hearers and
each has power over his own free-choice, some receiving not the faith missed what was
profitable. Wherefore we must say to them (as it is in the prophet), He that heareth, let
him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear.

This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light. The word This is full of
declaration of virtue and praise of person. For he that was sent, he says, from God, he
that with reason struck with astonishment the whole of Judaea, by the gravity of his life
and its marvellous exercise in virtue, he that is fore-announced by the voice of the holy
Prophets: called by Isaiah, The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, and by the
blessed David, a lamp fore-ordained for Christ 7; This man came for a witness to hear
witness of the Light. He here calls God the Word Light, and shews that He is One and
strictly the very actual Light, with Whom there is by nature nought else that has the
property of illumining, and that is not lacking light. Therefore foreign and, so to say,
of other nature than the creature is the Word of God, since verily and truly is He
strictly Light, the creature participate of light. He then that is unclassed with things
made, and conceived of therefore as being of other nature than they, how will He be
originate, rather how will He not be within the limits of Deity and replete with the Good
Nature of Him who begat Him?

8 He was not the Light, but was sent to bear witness of the Light. The Baptist having
esteemed desert-abodes above the haunts of the cities, and having shewn forth an unwonted
persistence in exercise of virtue, and having mounted to the very summit of the
righteousness attainable by man, was most rightly wondered at, and even by some imagined
to be Christ Himself. And indeed the rulers of the Jews led by his achievements in virtue
to some such notion, send some to him bidding them to inquire if he be the Christ. The
blessed Evangelist then not ignorant of the things that were by many bruited of him, of
necessity puts, He was not the Light, that he might both uproot the error as to this, and
again build up some weight of credence to him who was sent from God for a witness. For how
is he not eminent exceedingly, how is he not every way worthy of marvel, who is so clad
with great virtue and so illustrious in righteousness as to imitate Christ Himself, and by
the choice beauty of his piety, to be even imagined to be the Light Itself?

He was not then, says he, the Light, but sent to bear witness of the Light. In saying the
Light, with the addition of the article, he shews that it is really one: for so it is in
truth. For that both the blessed Baptist and each of the other saints, may be rightly
called light we will not deny, seeing that it is said of them by our Saviour, Ye are the
light of the world. And again it is said of the holy Baptist, I have ordained a lamp for
My Christ, and, He was a burning and a shining light, and ye were willing for a season to
rejoice in his light. But even though the saints be light, and the Baptist a lamp, we are
not ignorant of the grace that was given them and of their supply from the Light. For
neither is the light in the lamp its own, nor the illumination in the saints, but they are
rendered bright and lightsome by the enlightening of the Truth and are lights in the
world, holding forth the word of life. And what is the Life, whose word they holding forth
are called light, save surely the Only-Begotten, Who saith, I am the Life? Therefore, One
of a truth is That Which is verily Light, lighting, not enlightened: and by participation
of the One, whatever is called light, will be so deemed of by imitation of It.

Chapter VIII. That the Son of God alone is Very Light, the creature not at all, being
participate of Light, as originate.

9 That was the true Light. The Divine Evangelist again profitably recapitulates what has
been said, and clearly marks off That Which is in truth the Light, the Only-Begotten, from
those that are not so, namely things originate: he severs clearly That Which is by nature
from them which are by grace, That Which is partaken of from those which are participate
of it, That Which ministereth Itself to those who lack from those who are in enjoyment of
Its largess. And if the Son is Very Light, nought save He is in truth Light, nor hath of
its own in potential the being called and being Light, nor yet will things originate
produce this as fruit of their own nature; but just as from not being they are, so from
not being Light will they mount up to being light, and by receiving the beams of the Very
Light, and irradiated by the participation of the Divine Nature, will they in imitation of
It alike be called and be light.

And the Word of God is Essentially Light, not being so of grace by participation, nor
having this dignity as an accident in Himself, nor yet imported, as grace, but the
unchangeable and immutable good of the Uncreated Nature, passing through from the Father
into the Heir of His Essence. But the creature, not so will it bear about it the being
light, but as not having it receives, as darkness it is illumined, it has, as an accruing
grace, the dignity from the love to man of Him Who giveth it. Hence the One is Very Light,
the other not at all. So great therefore being the difference between, and so great a
notion severing off, the Son of God from the creature in respect to sameness of nature,
how must one not and with reason deem that they are foolish, yea rather outside of all
good understanding, who say that He is originate, and rank with things made the Creator of
all, not seeing, as seems to me, how great impiety their daring will risk, not knowing
either what they say nor whereof they affirm.

For that to those who are used to test more accurately the truth in the words before us,
the Only-Begotten, that is, the True Light, will be shewn to be in no way originate or
made, or in any thing at all con-natural with the creature, one may on all sides see and
that very easily, and not least through the thoughts that are in order subjoined,
collected for the consideration of what is before us. Thoughts or syllogisms whereby one
may learn that the Son Alone is Very Light, the creature not at all; hence neither is He
connatural therewith. If the Son being the Brightness of the glory of God the Father, is
therefore Very Light, He will not be connatural with the creature, that the creature too
be not conceived of as the brightness of the glory of God the Father, having in potential
the being by nature this which the Son is.

Another. If the whole creation have the power of being Very Light, why is this attributed
to the Son Alone? For one ought I suppose by reason of equality to give to things made
also the title of being the Very Light. But no one of things originate will this befit,
but it will be predicated of the Alone Essence of the Son. Of right therefore and truly
will it rest on Him, on created things not at all. How then will He be connatural with the
creation, and not rather belong to what is above the creation, as being above it with the
Father? Another. If that which is not in truth light be not the same as the in truth Light
(for the enunciation of either has somewhat of diversity), and the Son be called Very
Light, and be so of a truth: the creature will therefore not be Very Light. Hence neither
are things thus severed from one another connatural.

Another. If not only the Only-Begotten be the Very Light, but the creature too possesseth
the being very light, wherefore does He light every man that cometh into the world? For
since the originate nature too possesseth this of its own, the being lightened by the Son
were superfluous. Yet verily doth He light, all we are partakers of Him. Not therefore the
same in regard to quality of essence, are the Son and the creature: as neither with the
participator that whereof it is participate. Another. If not only to the Son by Nature
accrues the being Very Light, but the creature too have it, clearly of superfluity as I
think will the Psalmist say to some, Look unto Him and be ye lightened. For that which is
wholly of a truth light, will not become light by participation of some other, neither
will it be illumined by enlightenment from other, but rather will be endowed with perfect
purity from its own nature. But we see that man lacks light, being of created nature; and
true is the Psalmist crying aloud as to the Word of God, For Thou wilt light my candle,
the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. Not then of a truth light are we, but rather
participate of the Word that lighteth, and alien by nature from the Very Light, which is
the Son.

Another of the same. If the mind of man is called a candle, as it is sung in the Psalms,
For Thou wilt light my candle, how shall we be of a truth light? for to the candle the
light is imported and given. And if the Only-Begotten Alone lights the darkness that is in
us, how is not He rather of a truth light, we not at all? But if this be true, how can He
be connatural with the creature, Who is so far above it? Another. If to be very light can
accrue to the creature, even as to the Son, man will be very light, as being a portion of
it. To whom then did God the Father promise by the holy Prophets saying, But unto you that
fear My Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise? For whatever need of the Sun to
illumine it had the of a truth light? Yet did God the Father promise to give it us as
being in need, and we have received it and are lighted. Other then than we and the
creature in regard to identity of essence is the Only-Begotten, being Very Light and able
to lighten things that need light.

Another. If not the Son Alone is Very Light, but the creature too possess this, it will be
consequently in us too. What then induced the saints to cry aloud to God, O send out Thy
Light and Thy Truth? Wherein thinking to help us thereby did they oftentimes send forth,
tell me, those words? For if they knew that man is in need of light and that he lacks this
addition from another, how will any say with truth, that he too is Very Light? but if he
needed not the lighting word, why to no purpose did they call on Him Who could in no wise
aid them? But one cannot say that the mind of the saints failed of the truth, and God the
Father Himself sends the Son as to those who lack light. Other therefore by Nature in
respect of the creature is the Only-Begotten, as lighting things that lack Light.

Another. If we say that the creature lacks light, and that the Only-Begotten lightens it,
the creature does not bring itself to the Light; hence neither is it Very Light as the Son
is. Another. If that which is by nature and truth light does not admit of darkness, and
the Only-Begotten is Very Light, and the creature likewise Very Light, why does the
Scripture say of the Son, The darkness comprehended it not: but of us Paul saith, In whom
the god of this world hath blinded the eyes of them which believe not? and again the
Saviour Himself, While ye have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness come upon you.
For it is I suppose clear to all, that unless it were possible for some of us to be
apprehended by the darkness, our Saviour would not have said ought of this. How then will
any longer be the same in nature the Only-Begotten and the creature, the Unchangeable with
the changing, He Who may not suffer ought that injures with the darkened and that can
acquire lighting, as something, that is, accruing to it, and not inherent in it by nature?

Another. If the Only-Begotten be not Alone Very Light, but the creature have it too, as
connatural with Him, how cry we aloud to God the Father, In Thy Light shall we see light?
For if we be very light, how shall we be enlightened in another? But if we as needing
light from without us say this, we clearly are not in truth light. Hence neither are we
connatural with the Word Who is by Nature so far above us. Another expository. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is found to say in the Gospel, And this is the condemnation, that light is
come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light. But if
the Only-Begotten is the Very Light, and the creature is capable of being likewise very
light: how cometh He in order to lighten it, and it loved darkness? How at all cometh it
not to the light, if itself be the very light? For things that pertain to any by nature
have their possession inherent: things that are eligible of the will, have not that
inherence: as for example;----not of one's own will does one attain to being a rational
man; for one has it by nature: but one will have it of one's own will to be bad or good,
and will likewise of one's own power love righteousness or the reverse. If the creature is
by nature the light (for this is the meaning of very), how cometh it not to the light? or
how loveth it the darkness, as though it possessed not by nature the being very light, but
made through choice rather its inclination to the better or the worse?

Either therefore let our opponents dare to say that the endowments above those of the
creature are not naturally inherent in the Son, that they may be convicted of more naked
blasphemy and may hear from all, The Lord shall cut off all deceitful lips, and the tongue
that speaketh proud things, or if they surely confess that these goods are in Him
Essentially, let them not connect with Him in unity of nature, the nature that is not so,
as we have just shewn. Another. If the Word of God be not Alone the Very Light, but the
creature too possess the being very light, as He does, why does He say, I am the light of
the world? or how shall we endure one to despoil our nature of its most excellent
prerogative, if it is any way possible that we too should be very light, the originate
nature likewise possessing this? But if the Only-Begotten says truly, I am the Light of
the world, by participation it is plain with Him, and no otherwise, will the creature be
light. If so, it is not connatural with Him.

Another. If the Son be not Alone in truth Light, but this exist in things originate
also:----what shall we say, when the most wise Paul writes to us, But ye are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should shew
forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous Light?
For what kind of darkness at all is there in us, or in what darkness were we, being
ourselves also the in truth light? how have we been called unto the light, who are not in
darkness? But neither does the herald of truth speak untrulySvho was bold to say, Do ye
seek a proof of Christ speaking in me? and we are called into His marvellous Light, as
from darkness that is, and no otherwise. But if this be true, the creature is not of a
truth light, but the Son is alone truly and strictly Light, and things originate are so by
participation of Him, and therefore they are not connatural with Him.

Others with citation of utterances, gathering the readers by simpler thoughts to the
confession that the Son of God Alone is the Very Light, the nature of things originate
lighted by largess from Him, not possessing the being light essentially as He is. The
Psalmist says, The light of Thy Countenance was impressed upon us, O Lord. And what is the
Countenance of God the Father Whose Light has been impressed upon us? Is it not surely the
Only-Begotten Son of God, the Express Image, and Which therefore says, He that hath seen
Me hath seen the Father? But it was impressed on us, making us of like form with Himself
and engraving the illumination which is through His own Spirit as a Divine Image upon
those who believe on Him, that they too may now be called as He both gods and sons of God.
But if ought of things originate were the very light, how was it impressed upon us? For
the Light shineth in darkness, according to the unlying voice of the Spirit-clad. For how
will light be manifest in light?

Another. The Psalmist says, Light sprang up for the righteous. If to him who hath and
lacketh not, it is superfluous. But if the Light springeth up as to one who hath it not,
the Only-Begotten Alone is Light, the creature participate of Light and therefore alien-
in-nature. Another. The Psalmist says, For they got not the land in possession with their
own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but Thy Right Hand and Thine Arm and the
Light of Thy Countenance. The light of the countenance of God the Father he here calls His
revelation from the Son through the Spirit, and His conducting thereof unto all things
that are, which alone was what saved Israel and liberated them from the tyranny of the
Egyptians. If then not the Only-Begotten Alone be the very light, but an equal dignity be
inherent in the creature too, why were these of whom he speaks not saved by their own
light, but are set forth as supplied by additions from an alien and needless light? But it
is clear that the Only Begotten shone forth as on those lacking Light. Hence is He (and
that alone) the Very Light, and the creature borrows of Him the grace. If so, how will it
any longer be connatural with Him?

Another. The Psalmist says, Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall
walk, O Lord, in the Light of Thy Countenance. Why shall not they too walk rather in their
own light? why, tell me, do they gathering illumination from another, hardly attain for
themselves salvation, if they too are in truth light, as is the Countenance of God the
Father, that is, the Son? But it is I suppose plain to every one from this too, that the
Word bestoweth illumination on the creature, as lacking it, it is saved by receiving what
it has not. How then are the Only-Begotten and the things made through Him any longer the
same in essence? Another. The Psalmist says, Unto the upright He hath sent forth light in
the darkness. How was the upright in darkness at all, being himself too very light, if the
nature of things originate have this, just as the Only-Begotten? But if the Light is sent
to the upright as not having it, we shall not need many words; for the very nature of
things will proclaim aloud that not the same in essence is the needy with the Perfect, the
Bestower out of abundance with the lacking.

Another. Arise, shine, O Jerusalem: for thy Light is come, and the glory of the Lord is
risen upon thee. If the nature of things originate have light from its own resources, and
this be strictly what we say that the Only-Begotten is in regard of being Very Light, how
did Jerusalem lack one to light her? But since she receives illumination as a grace, Very
Light Alone is the Son Who lights her and gives her what she has not. If so, how is He not
wholly Other by Nature than she? Another. Behold I have given Thee for a covenant of the
people, for a light of the Gentiles. For how should the rational creature that is on earth
at all need light, if to be very light is inherent in it by nature? For God the Father
gives His Own Son to it as having it not already: and it receiving Him proclaims by the
very nature of the thing, both the poverty of its own nature and the Rich Dignity of Him
Who lights it.

Another. O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. Why do these
not rather walk in their own light, but the Only-Begotten holds forth light to them,
implanting in them the own good of His Essence? But trusting not in what is their own, do
they borrow what is another's: as not having therefore, they know how to do this. Another.
The Saviour saith, I am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in
darkness but shall have the Light of life. Let the creature too dare to utter such a word,
if it too be by nature light. But if it shrink back from the word, it will also flee the
thing itself, confessing the true Light, that is, the Son. Another. The Lord saith, While
ye have light, believe in the Light, that ye may be the children of light. Would they who
were by nature light, by not believing, lose the light? if it be indeed any way possible
for the originate essence to be the very light. And how could this be? For not as to
things that of essence accrue to any does the loss of them at all happen through
negligence, but as to things whereof the will works the possession, and that can accrue
and depart without the damage of the subject. As for example, a man is rational by nature,
a ship-builder by will, or infirm in body by accident. He cannot at all become irrational;
he may lose his ship-building experience, if for example he be negligent, and he may drive
away what befalls him of sickness, hastening to improvement through medicine. Therefore
things that accrue to any essentially have their position radical. If then the nature of
things originate can at all be the very light, how do they who will not believe lose the
light, or how will they who believe become children of light? For if they too are by
nature the light, they are called children of themselves. And what is the reward to them
that believe? for they who do not receive the faith are rather their own children. From
such considerations inferring the truth, we shall say that the Only Begotten is Alone the
Very Light, the creature lacking light and hence other in nature.

Another. Jesus then said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you: walk while
ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. To this too you may apply well the
argument used above. For that which is by nature light, will never be apprehended by
darkness. Another. John saith, He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is
in darkness even until now. Of choice then is the light in us, and of will rather than of
essence accrues it to things originate, if he that hateth his brother is in darkness. But
the Only-Begotten is Light by Nature, for He hath not the dignity as the fruit of choice.
Hence neither is He connatural to things originate Who is so far above them. Another akin
to this. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light. Love imparteth to things
originate what they have not, Light that is, but the Only-Begotten is Light: Other
therefore is He than they in whom through love He is.

Chapter IX. That the soul of man does not exist prior to the body, nor is the embodiment
as some say a consequence of former sins.

Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Sure is the Divine, for he not only
thinks that he ought to declare that the Only-Begotten is indeed the Very Light, but he
adds forthwith to the things that he has said the demonstration thereof, all but crying
aloud with most earnest voice, I say that He is the Very Light which lighteth every man
that cometh into the world. Do then, (may one say who would fain receive the Divine
doctrines not without search,) the angels not lighten the mind of men? Cornelius, tell me,
from whom did he learn that he must by Baptism be saved by God? And Manoah the father of
Sampson, was he not by an angel's voice fore-instructed of things to come? The Prophet
Zechariah likewise does he not clearly tell us, And the angel that talked with me said
unto me I will shew thee what these be? And again going through the same words, does he
not clearly shew that angels used to reveal the knowledge of hidden things spiritually to
him? And behold, says he, the angel that talked with me went forth and another angel went
out to meet him and said unto him Run, speak to this young man saying, Jerusalem shall be
inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein. What, tell
me, does not the most wise Daniel too, falling in with marvellous visions, gain through
the voice of angels the revelation of the things beheld by him? For hear him saying And it
came to pass when I, I Daniel had seen the vision and sought for the meaning, then behold
there stood before me as the appearance of a man, and I heard a man's voice between the
banks of Ulai which called and said Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.

Hence the power of lighting is in angels, and not only in them, but even man too borrows
illumination from man. And of a truth that Eunuch eager after learning when he understood
not the prophecies about our Saviour says to Philip, I pray thee, of whom speak-eth the
Prophet this? of himself or of some other man? And they who hasten to this world's
teachers, go to them I suppose for no other reason than this alone. And why do we yet
linger in these things, when it is in our power to free ourselves easily, producing as
proof what was said by our Saviour to the holy Apostles, Ye are the light of the world?
Such things is it like that one in his perplexity will say, but he will hear from us the
reply, We see my friend that in the creature is what is compound, and nought of simple is
in it: hence he who can give wisdom to others, if he be originate, is not wisdom itself,
but a minister of the wisdom that is in him: for in wisdom is the wise man wise. And he
who teaches the prudent, is not prudence itself, but the minister of prudence that is in
him; for in prudence are these too prudent. And he again who has skill to enlighten
others, is not the light itself, but the lender of the light that is in him, imparting it
to others also by teaching, and communicating to the rest the good that he has received.
Wherefore it was said to the holy Apostles also, Freely ye have received, freely give. For
whatever goods there were in them, these were surely God-given, and the nature of men may
not a whit boast itself of its own goods, nor yet that of the holy Angels. For after the
being called into being, each of things that are has of God the mode of its existence, and
we lay it down for certain that nought is in them essentially which is not a gift of the
liberality of Him Who created, and has for its root the Favour of the Maker.

Since therefore things originate are compound, there will be in them no light strictly and
simply or without compound, but this too with everything else they will have of
participation and receiving it of God. But the Very Light, is that which lightens, not
which is lighted of another; and this the Only-Begotten is, considered in simple and
uncompounded nature: for the God-head withdraws from ought of double. These things then
are thus. But the opponent will haply say again to us, If the saints were not by nature
light, why did the Saviour call them not partakers of light, but light? And how is the
creature other in nature than He, if as He is called Light, so too is the rational
creation? For Ye are the light of the world, did the disciples hear. What then, excellent
sir, will we reply? Sons of God and gods are we called by the Divine Scriptures, according
as it is said, I have said Ye are gods and all of you are children of the Most High. Shall
we then, leaving off being what we are, mount up to the Divine and unutterable Essence,
and deposing the Word of God from His very Sonship, in place of Him sit with the Father
and make the kindness of Him Who honours us a pretext for impiety? God forbid; but the Son
will be unchangeably in that which He is, we, adopted unto sonship and gods by grace, not
ignorant of what we are: and in this way do we believe that the saints are light.

I think that we should consider and look at this also. The rational portion of the
preation being enlightened enlightens by participation of ideas out of the mind inpoured
into another's understanding, and such sort of enlightenment will rightly be called
teaching rather than revelation. But the Word of God lighteth every man that cometh into
the world, not after the manner of teaching, as the angels for example or men, but rather
as God after the mode of creation He engrafteth in each of those that are called unto
being, the seed of wisdom or of Divine knowledge, and implanteth a root of understanding
and so rendereth the living creature rational, shewing it participate of His own Nature,
and sending into the mind as it were certain luminous vapours of the Unutterable
Brightness, in way and mode that Himself knoweth: for one may not, I deem, say on these
subjects anything overmuch. Therefore our forefather Adam too is seen to have attained the
being wise not in time, as we, but straightway from the first beginnings of his being does
he appear perfect in understanding, preserving in himself the illumination given of God to
his nature as yet untroubled and pure, and holding the dignity of his nature
unadulterated.

The Son therefore lights after the manner of creation, as being Himself the Very Light,
and by participation with the Light the creature shines forth, and is therefore called and
is light, mounting up to what is above its nature by the kindness of Him Who glorified it
and Who crowneth it with divers honours, so that each one of those who have been honoured,
may with reason come forth and lifting up prayers of thanksgiving, sing with loud voice,
Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits, Who forgiveth all thine
iniquities, Who healeth all thy diseases, Who redeemeth thy life from destruction, Who
crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, Who satisfieth thy mouth with good
things. For verily doth the Lord mercies, rendering those that are little and a mere
nothing according to their own nature, great and worthy of marvel through His Goodness
toward them, even as He has, as God, willed to adorn us ungrudgingly with His own goods,
and hence calls us gods and light, and what of good things does He not call us?

What does he say next? That He was in the world. Profitably does the Divine add this also,
introducing thereby a thought most needful for us. For when he said, He was the Very Light
which lighteth every man coming into the world, and it was not wholly clear to the
hearers, whether it meant that the Light lighteth every man that cometh into the world, or
that the Very Light itself, passing as from some other place into the world, maketh its
illumination of all men: needs does the Spirit-bearer reveal to us the truth and interpret
the force of his own words, saying straightway of the Light, that He was in the world:
that hence you might understand the words coming into the world of man, and that it might
be predicated rather of the enlightened nature, as being called out of not being into
being. For like a certain place seen in thought is the not being to things originate,
whence in a sort of way passing into being, it takes at length another place, that namely
of being.

Hence more properly and fitly will the nature of man admit of itself that it was lighted
immediately from the first periods, and that it received understanding coincident and co-
fashioned with its being from the Light Which is in the world, that is the Only-Begotten,
Who fills all things with the unspeakable light of the God-head, and is present with the
angels in Heaven, is with those on the earth, leaves not even Hellitself empty of His God-
head, and everywhere abiding with all removes from none, so that with reason does the most
wise Psalmist marvelling thereat say: Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall
I flee from Thy Presence? If I ascend up into Heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in
Hell, behold Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost
parts of the sea, even there shall Thy Hand lead me, and Thy Right Hand shall hold me. For
the Divine Hand graspeth every place and all creation, holding together into being things
made and drawing together unto life things lacking life, and implanting the spiritual
light in things recipient of understanding. Yet It is not in place, as we have already
said, nor does it endure motion of place (for this is the property of bodies), but rather
fulfils all things as God.

But perhaps some one will say to this, What then do we say, good sir, when any brings
forward to us Christ saying, I am come a light into the world? what when the Psalmist
speaks, O send out Thy Light and Thy Truth 1 For lo here He Himself clearly says that He
is come into the world, as not being in it, that is: and the Psalmist again was entreating
that He Who was not yet present should be sent, according, that is, to the meaning of the
words, and its declaration of His being sent to us. To this we say, that the Divine having
clad the Only-Begotten with God-befitting dignity says that He is ever and unceasingly in
the world, as Life by Nature, as Light by Essence, fulfilling the creation as God, not
circumscript by place, not meted by intervals, not comprehended by quantity, neither
compassed at all by ought, nor needing to pass from one place to another, but in all He
dwells, none He forsakes: yet he asserted that He came in the world (although present
therein) by the Incarnation. For He shewed Himself upon earth and conversed with men with
flesh, making His Presence in the world more manifest thereby, and He Who was aforetime
comprehended by idea, seen at length by the very eyes of the body also, implanted in us a
grosser so to speak perception of the knowledge of God, made known by wonders and mighty
deeds. And the Psalmist entreats that the Word of God may be sent to us to enlighten the
world, in no other way as seems to me, but in this. But I think that the studious should
consider this again, that keener is the mind than all speech, sharper the motion of the
understanding than the tongue. Hence as far as pertains to the delicacy of the mind and
its subtil motion, we behold the varied beauty of the Divine Nature:

but we utter the things respecting it in more human wise and in the speech that belongs to
us, the tongue not being able to stretch forth unto the measure of the truth. Wherefore
Paul too, the steward of the Mysteries of the Saviour, used to ask of God utterance to
open his mouth. Nought then will the poverty of our language hurt the Natural Dignities of
the Only-Begotten, but what belongs to Him will be conceived of after a Divine sort, but
will be uttered as matter of necessity in more human wise, both by Him for our sakes and
by the Saints of Him according to the measure of our nature. It were then, it seems, not
amiss to be content with what has been already said in explanation of the words before us.
Yet since I deem that the pen that ministers to the Divine doctrines should be above
sloth, come let us bringing forward the lection again examine more exactly how the words
coming into the world predicated of man, as is fit, should be understood. For the light
was in the world, as the Evangelist also himself testified to us, and we have maintained
that it was not the Light that cometh into the world but rather the man who is being
lighted. Some therefore say, belching forth of their own heart and not out of the mouth of
the Lord, as it is "written, that the souls of men were pre-existent in Heaven before the
fashioning of their bodies, passing long time in un-embodied bliss, and enjoying more
purely the true Good. But when the sate of better things came into them and, declining at
length to the worser, they sank to strange thoughts and desires, the Creator justly
displeased sends them forth into the world, and entangled them with bodies of earth
compelling them to be burdened therewith, and having shut them as it were in some cave of
strange pleasures, decreed to instruct them by the very trial itself, how bitter it is to
be carried away to the worser, and to make no account of what is good.

And in proof of this most ridiculous fable of theirs, they wrest first of all this that is
now before us: He was the Very Light Which lighteth every man coming into the world, and,
besides, certain other things of the Divine Scripture, such as, Before I was afflicted I
went astray, and moreover not ashamed of such foolish prating say, Lo the soul says that
before its humiliation, that is, its embodiment, it transgressed and that therefore it was
justly afflicted, brought in bondage to death and corruption, even as Paul too stileth the
body saying O wretched man that I am I who shall deliver me from, the body of this death?
But if the soul, he says, goeth astray before it was afflicted, it also cometh into the
world, as having that is a previous being (for how could it sin at at all if it existed
not yet?); and cometh into the world, setting out that is from some quarter. Such things
as these they stringing against the doctrines of the Church and heaping up the trash of
their empty expositions in the ears of the of the faithful will rightly hear, Woe unto the
foolish prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! For visions in truth,
and auguries by birds and prophecies of their own heart they setting against the words
spoken by the Spirit, do not perceive to how great absurdity their device will run; as the
Psalmist says unto God, Thou, Thou art to be feared:

and who may stand in Thy Sight when once Thou art angry? But that it is most exceedingly
absurd to suppose that the soul pre-exists, and to think that for elder transgressions it
was sent down into bodies of earth, we shall endeavour to prove according to our ability
by the subjoined considerations, knowing what is written, Give instruction to a wise man,
and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. Thoughts or
considerations of a complex kind in the way of demonstration. 1. If the soul of man have
existence prior to the formation of the body, and, declining to evil according to the
surmises of some, has for punishment of its transgression a descent into flesh, how, tell
me, does the Evangelist say that it is lighted on coming into the world? For this I
suppose is honour and the addition of fair gifts. But not by being honoured is one
punished, nor yet chastised by being made recipient of the Divine good things, but by
meeting with what is of the wrath of the punisher. But since man on his coming into the
world is not in this condition, but on the contrary is even lighted, it is I suppose clear
that he that is honoured with flesh has not his embodiment for a punishment.

2. Another. If before the body the soul were a mind yet pure, living in bliss, and by
turning aside to ill fell, and therefore came to be in flesh, how is it lighted on its
entry into the world? For one must needs say that it was destitute of light before it
came: if so, how any longer was that pure mind which had then scarce a beginning of being
lighted, when it came into the world, and not without flesh? 3. Another. If the soul of
man existed before the body; and the mind therefore existed yet pure, attached more
properly to the desire of good things, but from turning aside to the worser is sent into
earthly body, and being therein, no longer rejects the will to transgress, how is it not
wronged, not then specially entrusted with the doing of this, when it existed with a
greater aptness for virtue, not as yet in bondage to the ills that proceed from the body,
but when it had come into the turbid waters of sin, then out of season compelled to do
this? But the Divinity will not miss of the befitting time, nor that injure to Whose
Nature doing injury belongeth not. In season then and rightly do we refuse sin when in the
flesh, having this season alone of being, in which with bodies we come into the world,
leaving the former not being, as though a certain place, and from it passing into a
beginning of being.

4. Another. What reason is there, I would fain ask them, in the soul that sinned prior to
the body being sent into the body, that it might learn by experience the disgrace of its
own lusts? For they are not ashamed to set forth this too, although it ought rather to
have been withdrawn from the very imagination of its ills, not thrust down to the very
depth of base pleasures. For this rather than the other were a mode of healing. If then it
has the embodiment an increase of its disease in order that it may revel in the pleasures
of the body, one would not praise the Corrector, injuring that which was sick by the very
means whereby He thought to advantage it. But if it has it in order that it may cease from
its passions, how is it possible that it having fallen into the very depth of lust should
arise, and not rather have spurned the very beginning of the disease, while it was free
from that which dragged it down into sin?

5. Another. If the soul in pre-existence transgressed and was for this reason entangled
with flesh and blood, receiving this in the nature of punishment, how is it not the duty
of them who believe in Christ and who received thereby the remission of sin, to go
forthwith out of their bodies and to cast away that which is put about them as a
punishment? How, tell me, does the soul of man have perfect remission while yet bearing
about it the method of its punishment? But we see that they who believe are so far from
wishing to be freed from their bodies, that together with their confessions in Christ they
declare the resurrection of the flesh. No method of punishment then will that be which is
honoured even with the confession of the faith, witnessing, through its return back to
life, to the Divine Power of the Saviour the being able to do all things easily.

6. Another. If the soul pre-existing according to them sinned and was for this reason
entangled with flesh, why does the Law order the graver offences to be honoured with
death, and suffer him who has committed no crime to live? For I suppose that it would
rather have been right to let those who are guilty of the basest ill linger long in their
bodies, that they might be the more heavily punished, and to let those who had committed
no crime free from their bodies, if the embodiment ranks as a punishment. But on the
contrary, the murderer is punished with death, the righteous man suffers nothing in his
body. The embodiment does not therefore belong to punishment. 7. Another. If souls were
embodied for previous sins, and the nature of the body were invented as a species of
punishment for them, how did the Saviour profit us by abolishing death? how was not rather
decay a mercy, destroying that which punished us, and putting an end to the wrath against
us? Hence one might rather say that it were meeter to give thanks to decay than on the
contrary to Him Who laid on us endless infliction through the resurrection of the dead.
And yet we give thanks as freed from death and decay through Christ. Hence embodiment is
not of the nature of punishment to the soul of man.

8. Another from the same idea. If the souls of men were entangled with earthly bodies in
satisfaction of elder transgressions, what thank tell me shall we acknowledge to God Who
promises us the Resurrection? For this is clearly a renewal of punishment and a building
up of what hurts us, if a long punishment is clearly bitter to every one. It is then hard
that bodies should rise which have an office of punishment to their wretched souls. And
yet nature has from Christ, as a gift renewing it unto joy, the resurrection. The
embodiment is not therefore of the nature of punishment. 9. Another. The Prophetic word
appears as publishing to us some great and long desired-feast. For, says it, the dead
shall arise, and they that be in the tombs shall be raised. But if the embodiment were
indeed of the nature of punishment to the wretched souls of men, how would not the Prophet
rather sorrow when proclaiming these things as from God? How will that proclamation be in
any way good which brings us the duration of what vexes us? For he should rather have
said, if he wished to rejoice those who had received bodies by reason of sin, The dead
shall not arise, and the nature of the flesh shall perish. But on the contrary he rejoices
them saying that there shall be a resurrection of bodies by the will of God. How then can
the body wherein both ourselves rejoice and God is well pleased be (according to the
uncounsel of some) of the nature of a punishment?

10. Another. God, in blessing the blessed Abraham promised that his seed should be as the
multitude innumerable of the stars. If it be true that the soul sinning before the body is
sent down to earth and flesh to be punished, God promised to the righteous man, an ignoble
multitude of condemned, runagates from good, and not a seed participant of blessing. But
God says this as a blessing to Abraham: hence the origin of bodies is freed from all
accusal. 11. Another. The race of the Israelites spread forth into a multitude great and
innumerable. And indeed justly marvellous at this does the hierophant Moses pray saying to
them, And behold ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude: the Lord God of
your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are. But if it were punishment
to the souls of men to be in the world with bodies, and they must needs so be, and not
bare of them, Moses' saying will be found to be verily a curse, not a blessing. But it is
not so, it was made as a blessing: the embodiment therefore is not of the nature of
punishment.

12. Another. To those who attempt to ask amiss God endures not to give. And an unlying
witness to us will be the disciple of the Saviour, saying, Ye ash and receive not, because
ye ash amiss. If then it were a punishment to a soul to be embodied, how would not one
with reason say that Hannah the wife of Elkanah missed widely of what was fit, when she so
instantly poured her prayer unto God and asked for a man child. For she was asking for the
downfall of a soul and its descent into a body. How then came God to give her the holy
Samuel as her son, if it were wholly of necessity that a soul should sin, in order that
so, entangled with a body, it might fulfil the woman's request. And yet God gave, to Whom
it is inherent to give only good things and, by readily assenting to her, He frees her
request from all blame. Hence embodiment is not a result of sin, nor yet of the nature of
punishment as some say.

13. Another. If the body has been given as a punishment to the soul of man, what induced
Hezekiah the king of Jerusalem, although good and wise, to deprecate not without bitter
tears the death of the body, and to shrink from putting off the instrument of his
punishment, and to beseech that he might be honoured with an increase of years, although
he surely ought, if he were really good, not to have deprecated death, but to have thought
it a burden to be entangled with a body and to have acknowledged this rather than the
other as a favour. And how did God promise him as a favour saying, Behold I will add unto
thy days fifteen years, albeit the promise was an addition of punishment, not a mode of
kindness, if these set forth the truth? Yet the promise from above was a gift and the
addition a kindness. Hence the embodiment is not a punishment to souls.

14. Another. If the body is given to the soul of man in the light of punishment, what
favour did God repay to the Eunuch who brought up Jeremiah out of the dungeon, saying, I
will give thy life for a prey and will save thee from the Chaldeans? For He should rather
have let him die that He might also honour him, releasing him from the prison and
punishment. What tell me did He give to the young men of Israel, in delivering them from
the flame and from the cruelty of the Babylonians? why did He rescue the wise Daniel from
the cruelty of the lions? But verily He doeth these things in kindness and is glorified
because of them. The dwelling in the flesh is not then of the nature of punishment, in
order that honour and punishment at God's hands may not be one and the same.

15. Another. Paul teaching us that there shall be in due time an investigation before the
Divine Judgment-seat of each man's life says, For we must all appear before the judgement-
seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that
he done, whether it be good or bad. But if it be only for the things done in the body that
a man either receiveth punishment at the hands of the Judge, or is accounted worthy of
befitting reward, and no mention is made of prior sins, nor any charge previous to his
birth gone into: how had the soul any pre-existence, or how was it humbled in consequence
of sin, as some say, seeing that its time with flesh is alone marked out, for that the
things alone that were done in it are gone into? 16. Another. If souls were embodied on
account of previous sins, how does Paul write to us saying, Present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God? For if in the nature of punishment they were given
to our wretched souls, how should we present then for an odour of a sweet smell to God?
how will that be acceptable through which we received our sentence? or what kind of virtue
at all will that admit of, whose nature is punishment, and root sin?

17. Another. Shewing that corruption is extended against the whole nature of man, because
of the transgression in Adam, Paul saith, Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses
even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. How then
does he say that death reigned even over them that had not sinned, if the mortal body were
given us in consequence of former sins? For where at all are they that have not sinned, if
the embodiment be the punishment of faults, and our being in this life with our body is a
pre-existing charge against us? Unlearned then is the proposition of our opponents. 18.
Another. The Disciples once made enquiry of our Saviour concerning one born blind, and
said, Master who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? For since it is
written in the prophetic Scriptures, of God, that He visits the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children, the disciples began to imagine that such was the case with this man.
What then does Christ say to this? Verily I say to you, neither hath this man sinned nor
his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. How then does He
exempt them from sin, although not free from blame as to their lives? for being men, they
were surely liable also to faults. But it is manifest and clear that the discourse
pertains to the period prior to birth, during which they not yet existing, neither had
they sinned, that Christ may be true.

19. Another. The blessed Prophet Isaiah explaining the reason of the earth being made
says, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited. But it was altogether right
that the earth should be inhabited, not filled with bare spirits, nor with fleshless and
unclad souls, but with bodies suitable to it. Was it then Divine Counsel that wrought that
souls should sin, in order that the nature of bodies should also come into being, and thus
at length the earth be shewn to have been created not in vain? But this is absurd; the
other therefore has the better. 20. Another. Wisdom the Artificer of all things says of
herself in the book of Proverbs I was she in whom He rejoiced, the Creator of all that is,
and I daily rejoiced always before Him when He rejoiced in having consummated the world
and took delight in the sons of men. When then on His completion of the world, God
rejoices exceedingly in the forming of man, how will he not be bereft of all sense who
subjects the soul to previous sins and says that it was therefore embodied, and was
punished after this fashion? For will not God be the maker of a prison rather than a
world? will He not be delighting contrary to reason in those who are undergoing
punishment? And how will He be Good who delights in things so absurd? But verily He is
Good and therefore the Maker of things good: the embodiment will not therefore be of the
nature of punishment.

21. Another. If the soul of man by its entanglement with flesh pays the penalty of
transgressions prior to its birth in the world, and the body occupies the position of a
punishment to it, why was the Flood brought in upon the world of the ungodly, and Noah
being upright was preserved and has this recompense of his faith from God? For ought not
rather those who had sinned exceedingly to have lingered longer time in the body that they
might be punished also more severely, and the good to have been set free from their bonds
of flesh and received the release from the body as the recompense of their piety toward
God? But I suppose that the Creator of all being Righteous lays on each rank the sentence
due to it. Since then He being Righteous punishes the ungodly with the death of the body,
gladdens again the righteous with life together with the body: bodies are no punishment to
the souls of men, that God be not unrighteous, punishing the ungodly with favour,
honouring again the righteous with punishment.

22. Another. If to pay the penalty of previous offences the soul has descended into flesh
and body, how did the Saviour love Lazarus, raising him, and compelling him. who was once
set free from his bands to return to them again? But Christ did it helping him and as a
friend did He honour the dead by raising him from the dead. To no purpose then is the
proposition of the opponents. 23. Another. If, as those in their nonsense say, the body
was given to the soul in the light of a punishment, devised on account of former sin of
its, it was sin that brought in the nature of human bodies. But again also death entered
by sin: sin therefore clearly appears arming itself against itself, undoing the beginning
by what follows, and Satan is therefore divided against himself, how then shall his
kingdom stand? as our Saviour saith. But verily so to think is incredible: the contrary
therefore is true.

24. Another. God created all things in incorruption and He made not death, but through
envy of the devil came death into the world. But if it be true, that the body was given in
nature of punishment to the soul of man, why, sirs, should we accuse the envy of the devil
for bringing in to us the termination of wretchedness and destroying the body which is our
punishment? And for what in the world do we offer thanks to the Saviour for having again
bound us to the flesh through the resurrection? yet we do indeed give thanks, and the envy
of the devil has vexed our nature, procuring corruption to our bodies. No mode of
punishment then is the body nor yet is it the wages of our former sin. And the world was
made by Him. The Evangelist in these words needfully indicates that the world was made
through the Very Light, that is, the Only-Begotten. For although, having called Him most
distinctly Word at the beginning, he affirmed that all things were made through Him, and
that without Him nothing was brought into being, and demonstrated thereby that He was
their Maker and Creator: yet it was necessary now most particularly to take this up again
anew, that no room of error and perdition might be left to those who are wont to pervert
the uprightness of the Divine dogmas. For when he said of the Light that it was in the
world, that no one wresting the saying to senseless conceptions, should make the Light
connumerate with the visible portions of the universe (as sun and moon and stars for
example are in the world, but as parts of the universe, and as limbs of one body),
profitably and of necessity does the Evangelist introduce the Only-Begotten as Fashioner
and Artificer of the whole universe, and thereby again fully stablishes us and leads us
into an unerring and right apprehension of the truth. For who would be so silly or have
such great folly in his mind, as not to conceive that wholly other than the universe is He
through Whom it is said to have been made, and to put the creature in its own place, to
sever off the Creator in reasoning and to conceive that His Nature is Divine? For the
thing made must needs be other in nature than the Maker, that maker and made appear not
the same.

For if they be conceived of as the same, without any inherent distinction as to the mode
of being, the made will mount up to the nature of the Maker, the Creator descend to that
of the creatures, and will no longer have Alone the power of bringing into being, but this
will be found to exist in potential in things made also, if nothing at all severs them
from being consubstantial with God: and so at length the creature will be its own creator
and the Evangelist will endow the Only-Begotten with a mere title of honour when he says
that He was in the world, and the world, was made by Him. But he knows that the Creator of
all things is One in Nature. Not as the same then will made and Maker, God and creature be
conceived of by those who know how to believe aright, but the one will be subject as a
bondman, acknowledging the limit of its own nature: the Son will reign over it, having
Alone with the Father the power both to call things which he not as though they were and
by His ineffable Power to bring that which is not yet into being.

But that the Son being by Nature God, is wholly Other than the creature, we having already
sufficiently gone through in the Discourse of the Holy Trinity, will say nothing more
here. But we will add this for profit, that in saying that the world was made through Him
he brings us up to the thought of the Father, and with the "Through Whom" brings in also
the "Of Whom." For all things are from the Father through the Son in the Holy Ghost. And
the world knew Him not. The bearer of the Spirit is watchful and hastens to forestall the
sophistry of some; and you may marvel again at the reasoning in his thoughts. He named the
Son Very Light, and affirmed that He lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and
besides says that He was in the world and the world was made through Him.

But one of our opponents might forthwith say, "If the Word, sirs, were light and if it
lighted the heart of every man, unto Divine knowledge that is and unto the under-standing
that befits man, and if it were always in the world and were Himself its Maker, how came
He to be unknown even during so long periods? He therefore was not lighting nor yet was He
at all the Light." These things the Divine meets with some warmth saying The world knew
Him not: not on His own account was He unknown, says he; but let the world blame its own
weakness. For the Son lighteth, the creature blunts the grace. It had imparted to it sight
to conceive of Him Who is God by Nature, and it squandered the gift, it made things made
the limit of its contemplation, it shrank from going further, it buried the illumination
under its negligence, it neglected the gift which that it might not befall him Paul
commands his disciple to watch. Nought then to the light is the ill of the enlightened.
For as the light of the sun rises upon all, but the blind is nothing profited, yet we do
not therefore reasonably blame the sun's ray, but rather find fault with the disease of
the sight (for the one was lighting, the other received not the lighting): so (I deem)
ought we to conceive of the Only-Begotten also, that He is Very Light. But the god of this
world, as Paul too saith, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the knowledge of God should shine among them.

We say then that the man was subjected to blindness herein, not that he reached a total
deprivation of light (for the God-given understanding is surely preserved in his nature)
but that he was quenching it with his more foolish manner of life and that by turning
aside to the worse he was wasting and melting away the measure of the grace. Wherefore the
most wise Psalmist too when representing to us the character of such an one, then indeed
(and rightly) begs to be enlightened, saying to God, Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold
wondrous things out of Thy law. For He gave them the law to be their help, which re-
kindled in us the Divine Light and purged away like a sort of humour from the eyes of the
heart the darkness which came upon them from the ancient unlearning. The world then is
under the charge of unthankfulness alike and want of perception in this matter, both as
ignorant of its own Creator, and shewing forth no good fruit from being lighted, that that
again may be manifestly true of it, which was sung by prophet's voice of the children of
Israel, I looked that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth thorns. For the
fruit of being enlightened is verily the true apprehension of the Only Begotten, hanging
like a grape-bunch from the vine branch, I mean man's understanding, and not on the
contrary the uncounsel that leads to polytheistic error, like the sharp briar rising up
within us and wounding to death our mind with its deceits. 11 He came unto His own and His
own received Him not. The Evangelist pursues his plea that the world knew not its
Illuminer, that is the Only-Begotten, and from the worse sin of the children of Israel, he
hastens to clench the charges against the Gentiles and shews the disease of ignorance
alike and unbelief which lay upon the whole world. Very appositely does he drive forward
to discourse of the Incarnation, and from speaking of the Godhead 8, he comes down by
degrees to the exposition of the Dispensation with Flesh, which the Son made for our
sakes.

For it were no marvel if the world knew not, says he, the Only-Begotten, seeing that it
had left the understanding that befits man, and was ignorant that it is and was made in
honour, and compared to the beasts that perish, as the Divine Psalmist also said; when the
very people who were supposed above all to belong to Him shook Him off when present with
the Flesh and would not receive Him when He came among them for salvation to all,
recompensing to faith the kingdom of Heaven. But observe how exact is his language about
these things. For the world he accuses of not at all knowing Him Who lighteth it,
elaborating for it a pardon so to speak just on this account, and preparing beforehand
reasonable causes for the grace given to it: but of those of Israel who were reckoned
among those specially belonging to Him, he says, Received Him not. For it would not have
been true to say, Knew Him not, when the older law preached Him, the Prophets who came
after led them by the hand to the apprehension of the truth. The sentence therefore of
severity 9 upon them was just, even as the goodness too upon the Gentiles. For the world,
or the Gentiles, having lost their relation 10 with God through their downfall into evil,
lost besides the knowledge of Him Who enlighteneth them:

but the others, who were rich in knowledge through the law and called to a polity pleasing
to God, were at length voluntarily falling away from it, not receiving the Word of God Who
was already known to them and Who came among them as to His own. For the whole world is
God's own, in regard of its creation, and its being brought into being from Him and
through Him: but Israel will more fitly be called His own 11, and will gain the glory
hereof, both on account of the election of the holy fathers and for that he was named the
beginning and the first-born of the children of God. For Israelis My son, My first-born,
says God somewhere to Moses: whom also setting apart for Himself as one and picked out, He
was wont to call His own people, saying to Pharaoh king of Egypt Let My people go. Proof
from the books of Moses also shews that Israel specially pertains unto God. For when, it
says, the Most High was dividing the nations, when he was separating the sons of Adam, he
set the bounds of the nations according to the member of the angels of God, and his people
Jacob became the Lord's portion, Israel the lot of his inheritance. Among whom He also
walked, as in His own lot and special portion, saying, I am not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel.

But when He was not received, He transfers the grace to the Gentiles, and the world which
knew Him not at the beginning is lighted through repentance and faith, and Israel returns
to the darkness whence he had come forth. Wherefore the Saviour too saith, For judgement I
am come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might
be made blind. 12 But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of
God, to them that believe on His Name. A right judgement verily and worthy of God! The
firstborn, Israel, is cast out; for he would not abide in ownness with God, nor did lie
receive the Son, Who came among His own, he rejected the Bestower of Nobility, he thrust
away the Giver of Grace: the Gentiles received Him by faith. Therefore will Israel with
reason receive the wages of their folly, they will mourn the loss of good things, they
will receive the bitter fruit of their own ill-counsel, bereft of the sonship; and the
Gentiles will delight them selves in the good things that are through faith, they shall
find the bright rewards of their obedience and shall be planted out in his place. For they
shall be cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and be grafted contrary to
nature into a good olive tree. And Israel shall hear, Ah sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters, they have forsaken the
Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger: but one of Christ's disciples
shall say to the Gentiles, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy
nation, a peculiar people, that ye should shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called
you out of darkness into His marvellous Light. For since they received the Son through
faith, they receive the power to be ranked among the sons of God.

For the Son gives what is His alone and specially and of nature to be in their power,
setting it forth as common, making this a sort of image of the love for man that is
inherent to Him, and of His love for the world. For in none other way could we who bore
the image of the earthy escape corruption, unless the beauty of the image of the heavenly
were impressed upon us, through our being called to sonship. For being partakers of Him
through the Spirit, we were sealed unto likeness with Him and mount up to the primal
character of the Image after which the Divine Scripture says we were made. For thus hardly
recovering the pristine beauty of our nature, and re-formed unto that Divine Nature, shall
we be superior to the ills that have befallen us through the transgression. Therefore we
mount up unto dignity above our nature for Christ's sake, and we too shall be sons of God,
not like Him in exactitude, but by grace in imitation of Him. For He is Very Son, existing
from the Father; we adopted by His Kindness, through grace receiving I have said, Ye are
gods and all of you are children of the Most High. For the created and subject nature is
called to what is above nature by the mere nod and will of the Father:

but the Son and God and Lord will not possess this being God and Son, by the will of God
the Father, nor in that He wills it only, but beaming forth of the Very Essence of the
Father, He receives to Himself by Nature what is Its own Good. And again He is clearly
seen to be Very Son, proved by comparison with ourselves. For since that which is by
Nature has another mode of being from that which is by adoption, and that which is in
truth from that which is by imitation, and we are called sons of God by adoption and
imitation: hence He is Son by Nature and in truth, to Whom we made sons too are compared,
gaining the good by grace instead of by natural endowments. 13 Which were begotten, not of
blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God. They who, he says,
have been called by faith in Christ unto sonship with God, put off the littleness of their
own nature, and adorned with the grace of Him Who honoureth them as with a splendid robe
mount up unto dignity above nature: for no longer are they called children of flesh, but
rather offspring of God by adoption. But note how great guardedness the blessed Evangelist
used in his words. For since he was going to say that those who believe are begotten of
God, lest any should suppose that they are in truth born of the Essence of God the Father
and arrive at an exact likeness with the Only-Begotten, or that of Him too is less
properly said, From the womb before the Day star begat I Thee, and so at length He too
should be brought down to the nature of creatures, even though He be said to be begotten
of God, needs does he contrive this additional caution. For when he had said that power
was given to them from Him Who is by Nature Son, to become sons of God, and had hereby
first introduced that which is of adoption and grace, without peril does he afterwards add
were begotten of God; that he might shew the greatness of the grace which was conferred on
them, gathering as it were into kinness of nature that which was alien from God the Father
and raising up the bond to the nobility of its Lord, by means of His warm love to it.

What more then, will one perchance say, or what special have they who believe in Christ
over Israel, since he too is said to have been begotten of God, as in, I begat and exalted
sons, but they rejected Me? To this I think one must say, first, that the Law having a
shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, did not give to the
children of Israel to have even this in truth, but limned as in type and outline upon
them, until the time of reformation, as it is written, wherein they should at length be
manifested who should more fitly and truly call God Father, because the Spirit of the
Only-Begotten dwells in them. For the one had the spirit of bondage to fear, the other the
spirit of adoption unto liberty, whereby we cry Abba, Father. Therefore the people who
should attain unto sonship through faith that is in Christ, were fore-described in Israel
as it were in shadow, even as we conceive that the circumcision in Spirit was fore-
typified in theirs of old in the flesh, and in short, all of ours were in them in type.
Besides, we say that Israel was called to sonship typically through the mediator Moses.
Wherefore they were baptized into him too, as Paul saith, in the cloud and in the sea, and
were refashioned out of idolatry unto the law of bondage, the commandment contained in the
letter being ministered by angels:

but they who by faith in Christ attain unto sonship with God, are baptized into nought
originate, but into the Holy Trinity Itself, through the Word as Mediator, Who conjoined
to Himself things human through the Flesh which was united to Him, being conjoined of
nature to the Father, in that He is by Nature God. For so mounteth up the bond unto
sonship, through participation with the in truth Son, called and so to say raised up to
the dignity which is in Him by Nature. Wherefore we who have received the regeneration by
the Spirit through faith, are called and are begotten of God. But since some in mad peril
dare to lie, as against the Son, so against the Holy Ghost too, saying that He is
originate and created, and to thrust Him forth altogether from. Consubstantiality with God
the Father, come let us again arraying the word of the true Faith against their unbridled
tongues, beget occasions of profit both to ourselves and to our readers. For if neither
God by Nature, O sirs, nor yet of God, is He Who is His Own Spirit and therefore
Essentially inexistent in Him, but is other than He, and not removed from being connatural
with things made, how are we who are begotten through Him said to be begotten of God? For
either we shall say that the Evangelist certainly lies, or (if he is true and it be so and
not otherwise), the Spirit will be God and of God by Nature, of Whom we too being
accounted worthy to partake through faith to Christ-ward, are rendered partakers of the
Divine Nature and are said to be begotten of God, and are therefore called gods, not by
grace alone winging our flight to the glory that is above us, but as having now God too
indwelling and lodging in us, according to what is said in the prophet, I will dwell in
them and walk in them.

For let them tell us who are filled full with so great unlearning, how, having the Spirit
dwelling in us, we are according to Paul temples of God, unless He be God by Nature. For
if He be a creature and originate, wherefore does God destroy us, as defiling the temple
of God when we defile the body wherein the Spirit indwells, having the whole Natural
Property of God the Father and likewise of the Only-Begotten? And how will the Saviour be
true in saying: If a man love Me, he will keep My Words: and My Father will love him and
we will come unto him and make Our abode with him and rest in him? albeit it is the Spirit
Who dwells in us, and through Him do we believe that we have the Father and the Son, even
as John himself said again in his epistles, Hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He in
us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And how at all will He be called Spirit of
God, if He be not of Him and in Him by Nature and therefore God? For if being, as those
say, originate, He is the Spirit of God, there is nothing to hinder the other creatures
too from being called spirits of God. For this will have already overtaken them in
potential, if it is at all possible that originate essence should be Spirit of God.

And it were meet in truth to set forth a long discourse upon these things and to satiate
more at length, overturning the uncounsels of the heretics. But having already
sufficiently gone through what relates to the Holy Ghost, in the De Trinitate, we shall
therefore forbear to say much yet. 14 And the Word was made Flesh. He has now entered
openly upon the declaration of the Incarnation. For he plainly sets forth that the Only-
Begotten became and is called son of man; for this and nought else does his saying that
the Word was made Flesh signify: for it is as though he said more nakedly The Word was
made Man. And in thus speaking he introduces again to us nought strange or unwonted,
seeing that the Divine Scripture ofttimes calls the whole creature by the name of flesh
alone, as in the prophet Joel: I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. And we do not
suppose that the Prophet says that that the Divine Spirit should be bestowed upon human
flesh soul-less and alone (for this would be by no means free from absurdity): but
comprehending the whole by the part, he names man from the flesh: for thus it was right
and not otherwise. And why, it is needful I suppose to say.

Man then is a creature rational, but composite, of soul that is and of this perishable and
earthly flesh. And when it had been made by God, and was brought into being, not having of
its own nature incorruption and imperishableness (for these things appertain essentially
to God Alone), it was sealed with the spirit of life, by participation with the Divinity
gaining the good that is above nature (for He breathed, it says, into his nostrils the
breath of life and man became a living soul). But when he was being punished for his
transgressions, then with justice hearing Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return,
he was bared of the grace; the breath of life, that is the Spirit of Him Who says I am the
Life, departed from the earthy body and the creature falls into death, through the flesh
alone, the soul being kept in immortality, since to the flesh too alone was it said, Dust
thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. It needed therefore that that in us which was
specially imperilled, should with the greater zeal be restored, and by intertwining again
with Life That is by Nature be recalled to immortality: it needed that at length the
sentence. Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return should be relaxed, the fallen body
being united ineffably to the Word That quickeneth all things. For it needed that becoming
His Flesh, it should partake of the immortality that is from Him. For it were a thing most
absurd, that fire should have the power of infusing into wood the perceptible quality of
its inherent power and of all but transfashioning into itself the things wherein it is by
participation, and that we should not fully hold that the Word of God Which is over all,
would in-work in the flesh His own Good, that is Life.

For this reason specially I suppose it was that the holy Evangelist, indicating the
creature specially from the part affected, says that the Word of God became Flesh, that so
we might see at once the wound and the medicine, the sick and the Physician, that which
had fallen unto death and Him Who raised it unto life, that which was overcome of
corruption and Him Who chased away the corruption, that which was holden of death and Him
Who is superior to death, that which was bereft of life and the Giver of life. But he says
not that the Word came into flesh but that It was made Flesh, that you may not suppose
that He came to it as in the case of the Prophets or other of the Saints by participation,
but did Himself become actual Flesh, that is man: for so we just now said. Wherefore He is
also God by Nature in Flesh and with Flesh, as having it His own, and conceived of as
being Other than it, and worshipped in it and with it, according to what is written in the
prophet Isaiah, Men of stature shall come over unto thee and they shall be thine: they
shall come after thee; in chains they shall come over and they shall fall down unto thee,
they shall make supplication unto thee, for God is in thee, and there is no God beside
thee. Lo they say that God is in Him, not severing the Flesh from the Word; and again they
affirm that there is none other God save He, uniting to the Word that which He bears about
Him, as His very own, that is the temple of the Virgin: for He is One Christ of Both.

And dwelt among us. The Evangelist profitably goes over again what he has said, and brings
the force of the thought to a clearer comprehension. For since he said that the Word of
God was made Flesh, lest any out of much ignorance should imagine that He forsook His own
Nature, and was in truth changed into flesh, and suffered, which were impossible (for the
Godhead is far removed from all. variableness and change into ought else as to mode of
being): the Divine exceeding well added straightway And dwelt among us, that considering
that the things mentioned are two, the Dweller and that wherein is the dwelling, you might
not suppose that He is transformed into flesh, but rather that He dwelt in Flesh, using
His own Body, the Temple that is from the Holy Virgin. For in Him dwelt all the fulness of
the Godhead bodily, as Paul saith.

But profitably does he affirm that the Word dwelt in us, unveiling to us this deep Mystery
also: for we were all in Christ, and the community of human nature mounteth up unto His
Person; since therefore was He named the last Adam,, giving richly to the common nature
all things that belong to joy and glory, even as the first Adam what pertained to
corruption and dejection. The Word then dwelt in all through one that the One being
declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, the dignity might
come unto all the human nature and thus because of One of us, I have said Ye are gods and
all of you are children of the Most High might come to us also. Therefore in Christ verily
is the bond made free, mounting up unto mystic union with Him Who bare the form of the
servant; yet in us after the likeness of the One because of the relation after the flesh.
For why doth He take on Him not the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham, whence in
all things it behoved Him to he made like unto His brethren, and to become in truth Man?
Is it not clear to all, that He descended unto the condition of bondage, not Himself
giving thereby ought to Himself, but bestowing Himself on us, that we through His Poverty
might be rich, and, soaring up through likeness to Him unto His own special good, might be
made gods and children of God through faith? For He Who is by Nature Son and God dwelt in
us, wherefore in His Spirit do we cry Abba Father. And the Word dwells in One Temple taken
for our sakes and of us, as in all, in order that having all in Himself, He might
reconcile all in one body unto the Father,as Paul saith.

And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. Having said that the Word was made Flesh, that is Man, and having brought Him
down to brotherhood with things made and in bondage, he preserves even thus His Divine
dignity intact and shews Him again full of the own Nature of the Father inherent to Him.
For the Divine Nature has truly stability in Itself, not enduring to suffer change to
ought else, but rather always unvarying and abiding in Its own Endowments. Hence even
though the Evangelist says that the Word was made Flesh, he yet affirms that It was not
overcome by the infirmities of the flesh, nor fell from Its pristine Might and Glory, when
It clad Itself in our frail and inglorious body. For we saw, he says, His Glory surpassing
that of others, and such as one may confess befits the Only-Begotten Son of God the
Father: for full was He of grace and truth. For if one looks at the choir of the saints
and measures the things that are wondrously achieved by each, one will with reason marvel
and be delighted at the good things that belong to each and will surely say that they are
filled with glory from God. But the Divines and witnesses say that they have seen the
glory and grace of the Only-Begotten, not competing with that of the rest, but very far
surpassing it and mounting up by incomparable excellencies, having no measured grace, as
though another gave it, but perfect and true as in the Perfect, that is, not imported nor
supplied from without in the way of accession, but essentially in-existent, and the fruit
of the Father's essential Propertypassing Naturally to the Son Who is of Him.

And if it seem good to any to test more largely what has been said, let him consider with
himself both the deeds that are wonderfully done by each of the saints and those of our
Saviour Christ and he will find the difference as great as we have just said. And there is
this besides;----they are trueservants about the house, He as a Son over his own house.
And the Divine Scripture says of the Only-Begotten Blessed be he that cometh in the Name
of the Lord, but of the saints God the Father says, I have even sent unto you all my
servants the prophets. And the one were recipients of the grace from above, the other as
Lord of Hosts says, If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not: but if I do,
though ye believe not Me, believe My works. If then the Only-Begotten is seen by the very
works to be as great in power as the Father, He will conformably be celebrated by equal
honours, as the Doer of equal works, and will surely as much surpass, even when in the
Flesh, those who have been called unto brotherhood, as God by Nature overleaps the limits
of men, and the Very Son the sons by adoption.

But since it is written in the blessed Luke, And Jesus increased in wisdom and grace, we
must observe here that the Spirit-clad said that the Son hath His glory full of grace.
Whither then will that which is full advance, or what addition will that at all admit,
beyond which there is nought? Hence He is said to increase, not in that He is Word and
God, but because He ever more greatly marvelled at, appeared more full of grace to those
who saw Him, through His achievements, the disposition of those who marvelled advancing,
as is more true to say, in grace, than He Who is Perfect as God. Be these things then
spoken for profit, though they be somewhat discursive. 15 John bare witness of Him and
cried. The most wise Evangelist follows again the course of his thoughts and makes the
sequel duly correspondent to what preceded. For when he said of the Son of God, we beheld
His Glory, the Glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, that he might not appear to
alone say this (the word we have seen not suiting a single person), he joins with himself
his namesake witness, having one and the same piety with himself. I then, says he, bear
witness (for I have beheld what I said), and the Baptist likewise bears witness. A most
weighty pair of Spirit-clad, and a notable pair of men foster-brothers in truth and
unknowing how to lie.

But see how exceeding forcible he made his declaration. For he not only says that John
bears witness of Him, but profitably adds and cried, taking his proof from the words The
voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, and this too exceeding well. For it was
possible that some of the opponents might say, When did the Baptist witness to the Only-
Begotten or to whom did he impart the things regarding Him? He cried then, says he, that
is, not in a corner does he utter them, not gently and in secret does he bear witness: you
may hear him crying aloud more clear than a trumpet, (not you alone hearing these things,)
widespread and to all is his speech, glorious the herald, remarkable the voice, great and
not unknown the Forerunner. This was He of Whom I spake, He that cometh after me is
preferred [has become] before me, for He was before me.

Having named the witness same-minded and same-named with himself, and having shewn that he
used a great voice for the service of his preaching, he profitably adds the mode too of
his testimony: for it is in this in particular that the whole question lies. What then do
we find the great John crying regarding the Only-Begotten? He that cometh after me has
become before me for He was before me. Deep is the saying and one that demands keen search
into its meaning. For the obvious and received meaning is thus: As far as belongs to the
time of the Birth according to the Flesh, the Baptist preceded the Saviour, and Emmanuel
clearly followed and came after by six whole months, as the blessed Luke related. Some
suppose that John said this, that it may be understood thus, He that cometh after me, in
point of age, is preferred before me. But he who fixes a keener eye on the Divine thoughts
may see, in the first place, that this view introduces us to futile ideas and carries us
far from the needful subject of consideration. For the holy Baptist is introduced as a
witness, not in order to shew that Christ was once later, then again earlier in the time
of His Birth, but as a co-witness of His Glory, the Glory as of the Only-Begotten of the
Father full of grace and truth.

What meaning then can one give to such unseasonably introduced explanations as these? or
how can one give us any clear interpretation, by understanding of time the words before
us, He That cometh after me became before me? For be it laid down beyond a doubt that the
Lord came after the Baptist, as being second to him in time according to the Flesh: how
will He be also before him, I mean in time? for due order and sequence call us to this
sense analogously to what preceded. But I think that it is evident to every one, that this
is an impossibility. For that which cometh short of anything in point of time will never
have the start of its leader. Hence it is a thing utterly senseless and altogether past
belief, to imagine that the holy Baptist said of time after the Flesh,. He that cometh
after me has become before me. But understanding it rather in accordance with the line of
thought that preceded, we will believe that it was said in some such sense as this. The
blessed Baptist meetly carries up his mode of speaking from a customary phrase to its
spiritual import, and advances as it were from an image drawn from our affairs to the
exposition of subtler thoughts.

For that which leads is ever considered to be more glorious than those which are said to
follow, and things which succeed yield the palm to those that precede them. As for
example, he who is a skilled worker in brass, or carpenter, or weaver, takes the lead and
has superiority over him who is conceived as following by being a learner and advancing to
perfect knowledge. But when such an one has surpassed the skill of his teacher and leaving
that behind attains to something superior, I deem that he who is surpassed may not unfitly
say of his outstripping pupil, He that cometh after me, has become before me. Transferring
then after this sort the force of our idea to our Saviour Christ and the holy Baptist, you
will rightly understand it. Take now the account of each from the beginning. The Baptist
was being admired by all, he was making many disciples, a great multitude of those who
came for Baptism was always surrounding him: Christ, albeit superior, was unknown, they
knew not that He was Very God. Since then He was unknown, while the Baptist was admired,
He seemed I suppose to fall short of him; He came a little after him who had still the
higher position in honour and glory from men. But He That cometh after has become before,
being shewn to be greater and superior to John. For the One was at length revealed by His
works to be God, the other not surpassing the measure of human nature, is found at last to
have become after.

Hence the blessed Baptist said darkly, He that cometh after me has become before me,
instead of, He who was once behind me in honour, is beheld to be more glorious, and
surpasses by incomparable excellencies the measure that befits and belongs to me. Thus
understanding the words, we shall find him a witness of the Glory of the Only-Begotten and
not an unseasonable setter forth of useless things. For his saying that Christ is greater
than himself who has a great reputation for holiness, what else is it than witnessing to
His especial glory? For He was before me. Having said that He has become before me, he
needfully adds, For He was before me, ascribing to Him glory most ancient, and affirming
that the precedence of all things accrued not to Him in time, but is inherent in Him from
the beginning as God by Nature. For He was before me, says he, instead of, Always and
every-way superior and more glorious. And by His being compared with one among things
originate, the judgment against all is concentrated in behalf of Him Who is above all. For
we do not contemplate the great and glorious dignity of the Son as consisting in this
alone that He surpassed the glory of John, but in His surpassing every originate essence.

16 And of His fulness have all we received. The Evangelist in these words accepts the true
testimony of the Baptist, and makes clear the proof of the superiority of our Saviour, and
of His possessing essentially the surpassing every thing originate, both in respect of
glory itself (whereof he is now more especially speaking) and of the bright catalogue of
all the other good things. For most excellently, says he, and most truly does the Baptist
appear to me to say of the Only-Begotten, For He was before me, that is far surpassing and
superior. For all we too, who have been enrolled in the choir of the saints, enjoy the
riches of His proper good, and the nature of man is ennobled with His rather than its own
excellences, when it is found to have ought that is noble. For from the fulness of the
Son, as from a perennial fountain, the gift of the Divine graces springing forth comes to
each soul that is found worthy to receive it. But if the Son supplies as of His Natural
fulness, the creature is supplied:----how will He not be conceived of as having glory not
similar to the rest, but such as will beseem the Only-Begotten of God, having the
superiority over all as the fruit of His own Nature, and the pre-eminence as the Dignity
of His Father's Being? And I think that the most wise Paul too when defining as to the
nature of all things, was moved thereby to true ideas, so as hence at length to address
the creature, For what hast thou that thou didst not receive? For together with being, the
well-being after such and such wise, is God's gift to the creature, and it has nothing of
its own, but becomes rich only with the munificence of Him Who gives to it. But we must
note again that he says that the Son is full, that is, All-perfect in all things, and so
greatly removed from being lacking in anything whatever, that He can bestow even on all,
refusing diminution, and preserving the greatness of His own excellence always the same.

17 And grace for grace, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ. Having said that the glory of the Only-Begotten was found more brilliant than any
fame among men, and introducing the greatness in holiness incomparable above all saints
that is in Him, he studies to prove this from those who have mounted up to the height of
virtue. Of John then the Saviour saith, Verily I say unto you, Among them that are horn of
women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. But this so great and exalted
man, he brought forward but now, as himself says, crying and saying with a loud voice, He
that cometh after me is preferred before me for He was before me. But since John's glory
was inferior and gave place to the Only-Begotten, how must one not needs suppose that no
one of the saints besides is brought up to equal measure with the Saviour Christ in regard
of the glory which appears in the splendour of their actions? The Saints then that lived
at the time of the Advent, not being able to surpass the virtue of John, nor mounting up
to the measure that accrued to him, will with him yield the victor's palm to Christ, if
the blessed Baptist gaining the highest summit in what is good, and having failed in no
manner of excellence, receives not through the voice of another the judgment of
inferiority to Him, but himself sealed it against himself, speaking, as a saint, truly.

But since it was necessary that Emmanuel should be shewn to be greater and better than the
saints of old, needs does the blessed Evangelist come to the hierophant Moses first; to
whom it was said by God, I know thee before all and thou didst find grace in My sight. For
that he was known before all to God, we shall know by this again: If, he says, there be a
prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision and will speak
unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all Mine house. With
him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches. The all-wise
Moses having therefore so great excellency above the elder saints, he shews that the Only-
Begotten is in every way superior and of more renown, that He might be shewn in all things
to have the pre-eminence, as Paul saith: and therefore he says, And grace for grace, for
the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ: for I think that the
blessed Evanglist would indicate something of this kind: The great Baptist, he says, made
true confession declaring openly respecting the Only-Begotten, He that cometh after me is
preferred before me, for He was before me, for of His fulness have all we received.

And let no one suppose that the Only-Begotten surpasses John or the rest of the saints who
belonged to the times of the Advent, but came short of the glory of the elder saints, who
were illustrious in holiness in the times before the Advent; for he will see Him, says he,
far surpassing the measure of Moses, although he possessed the superiority in holiness as
compared with them; for the Lawgiver clearly affirmed that He knew him before all. John
then was convicted by his own mouth of coming behind the glory of Christ: he comes short
of His splendour, and there is no question at all about him, or anything to embarrass the
finding out of the truth. Whence then shall we find that the hierophant Moses himself also
came short of the glory of the Lord? Let the student, he says, diligently examine the
evangelic grace given to us by the Sayiour, in contrast with the grace of the law that was
through Moses. For then will he see that the Son was as much superior, as He is proved to
be the Lawgiver of better things than the polity of the law and introducing things
superior to all those which were through Moses. For the law, he says, was given through
Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. What then is the distinction between the law
and the grace that comes through the Saviour, let him again see who is fond of search and
an ally of good labours; we will say a little out of much, believing that boundless and
vast is the number of the thoughts thereto belonging. The Law therefore was condemning the
world (for God through it concluded all under sin, as Paul saith) and shewing us subject
to punishments, but the Saviour rather sets it free, for He came not to judge the world
but to save the world. And the Law too used to give grace to men, calling them to the
knowledge of God, and drawing away from the worship of idols those who had been led astray
and in addition to this both pointing out evil and teaching good, if not perfectly, yet in
the manner of a teacher and usefully:

but the truth and grace which are through the Only-Begotten, does not introduce to us the
good which is in types, nor limn things profitable as in shadow, but in glorious and most
pure ordinances leads us by the hand unto even perfect knowledge of the faith. And the Law
used to give the spirit of bondage to fear, but Christ the spirit of adoption unto
liberty. The Law likewise brings in the circumcision in the flesh which is nothing (for
circumcision is nothing, as Paul writes to certain): but our Lord Jesus Christ is the
Giver of circumcision in the spirit and heart. The Law baptizes the defiled with mere
water: the Saviour with the Holy Ghost and with fire. The Law brings in the tabernacle,
for a figure of the true: the Saviour bears up to Heaven itself and brings into the truer
tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. And it were not hard to heap up other
proofs besides, but we must respect our limits.

But we will say this for profit and need. The blessed Paul in few words solved the
question, saying of the law and of the Saviour's grace, For if the ministration of
condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.
For he says that the commandment by Moses is the ministration of condemnation; the grace
through the Saviour, he calls the ministration of righteousness, to which he gives to
surpass in glory, most perfectly examining the nature of things, as being clad with the
Spirit. Since then the Law which condemns was given by Moses, the grace which justifies
came by the Only-Begotten, how is not He, he says, superior in glory, through Whom the
better things were ordained? The Psalmist then will also be true, crying aloud in the
Spirit that our Lord Jesus Christ surpasses the whole illustrious multitude of the saints.
For who, he says, among the clouds shall be made equal unto the Lord? or who shall be
likened unto the Lord among the sons of God? For the spiritual clouds, that is the holy
Prophets, will yield the palm to Christ, and will never think that they ought to aim at
equal glory with Him, when he who was above all men known of God, Moses, is brought down
to the second place:

and they who were called sons of God at the time of the Advent, will not be wholly likened
to Him Who is by Nature Son, but will acknowledge their own measure, when the holy Baptist
says that he himself is far behind, of whom He That knoweth the hearts says, Among them
that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. True
therefore is the blessed Evangelist, saying that he has seen His glory, the glory as of
the Only-Begotten of the Father, that is, which beseems the Only-Begotten Son of God the
Father, and not rather those who are called to brotherhood with Him, of whom He is
Firstborn.

Chapter X. That the Only-Begotten is Alone by Nature the Son from the Father, as being of
Him and in Him.

18 No man hath seen God at any time; the Only-Begotten God , Which is in the Bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him. See again herein the vigilance of the Spirit-clad. He was
not ignorant that some would surely say, bitterly searching into the things which are
spoken of the Only-Begotten: You said, good sir, that you had beheld His Glory, the glory
as of the Only-Begotten of the Father: then when you ought to unfold to us the explanation
of this and to tell us some thing God-befitting and due, you made your demonstration from
His superiority to Moses and to the measure of John, as though one could not in any other
way see His Glory, although the blessed Prophet Isaiah says, I saw the Lord sitting upon a
throne high and lifted up and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the Seraphim,
each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face and with twain he covered his feet
and with twain he did fly; and one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the
Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory: Bzekiel again cried openly to us that
he both saw the Cherubim, having a firmament like a sapphire resting upon their heads, and
upon a throne likewise the Lord of Hosts: his words are these, And there was a voice, says
he, from the firmament that was over their heads, and above the firmament that was over
their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone:

and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon
it: and I saw as the colour of amber, from the appearance of his loins even upwards and
from the appearance of his loins even downwards, I saw as it were the appearance of fire
and it had brightness round about, as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in
the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the
appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. Since therefore it was not unlikely
that not a few of the more unlearned would say some such things to us, needs does the
blessed Evangelist hasten to cut short their attempts, saying, No man hath seen God at any
time; for the Only-Begotten Himself being God, Which is in the bosom of God the Father,
made this declaration to us, saying most clearly to the hierophant Moses, There shall no
man see My Face and live: and sometime to His own disciples, Not that any man hath seen
the Father, save He Which is of God, He hath seen the Father. For to the Son Alone That is
by Nature is the Father visible and that in such wise as one may think that the Divine
Nature Divinely sees and is seen, and to none other of things which are. Yet will the
speech of the holy Prophets in no way be false when they cry aloud that they saw the Lord
of Hosts: for they do not affirm that they saw that very essential Thing that the Nature
of God is, but they themselves too openly cry out, This is the appearance of the likeness
of the Glory of the LORD. Therefore the fashion of the Divine Glory was darkly formedout
of things such as are ours, and was rather a likeness giving things Divine as it were in a
picture, while the truth of them mounts up to excellence above mind and speech.

Most excellently then does the most wise Evangelist saying, And we beheld His glory, the
glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, bring in the
demonstration thereof from His superiority to all. For like as from the beauty of the
creatures proportionably is the Power of the Creator of all beheld, and the heavens
without voice declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handywork: so again
will the Only-Begotten be proved superior in Glory and more resplendent, surpassing
apprehension, as regards the power of the eye, as God; and wherein He surpasses the
creature, therein deemed of and glorified as being above it. Such thought then and no
other I deem that the words now before us are replete with. But we must note again that he
both calls the Son Only-Begotten God, and says that He is in the Bosom of the Father, that
He may be shewn again to be outside of any connaturality with the creature and to have His
own proper Being of the Father and in the Father. For if He is verily Only-Begotten God,
how is He not Other in nature than they who are by adoption gods and sons? For the Only-
Begotten will be conceived of not among many brethren, but as the Only one from the
Father.

But since, while there are as Paul saith many who are are called gods in heaven and earth,
the Son is Only-Begotten God, He will clearly be outside of the rest and will not be
reckoned among those who are gods by grace, but will rather be Very God with the Father.
For so does Paul conjoin Him, saying to us, But to us One God the Father of Whom are all
things, and One Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things. For the Father being by Nature
One God, the Word That is of Him and in Him will not remain external from being God,
eminent in the ownness of Him Who begat Him, and ascending essentially to equal Dignity,
because He is by Nature God. Therefore does he say that He is in the Bosom of the Father,
that you may again conceive His being in Him and of Him according to what is said in the
Psalms: From the womb before the day-star begat I Thee. For as here he puts From the womb,
because of His being of Him and that really, from likeness of things belonging to us (for
things born of men proceed from the womb); so too when he says in the bosom, he would
plainly shew the Son all but in the womb of the Father which begat Him forth, (as it were
in some Divine gleaming forth and unspeakable forth-come unto His own Person), but which
yet possesses Him, since not by cutting away or division after the flesh, did the Divine
Offspring come forth of the Father. And indeed the Son somewhere says that He is in the
Father and has again the Father in Him. For the very own of the Father's Essence passing
essentially into, the Son, shews the Father in Him, and the Father again has the Son
rooted in Himself in exact sameness of Essence and begotten of Him, yet not by division or
interval of place, but inherent and ever co-existing; thus rather shall we piously
understand that the Son is in the Bosom of the Father, not as some of those who are wont
to fight against God have taken it, whose damnation is just: for they pervert all equity,
as the Prophet says, undoing the ears of the simpler ones and sinning without heed against
the brethren, for whom Christ died.

What it is then that these both think and say and try to teach others, we must needs say.
When the holy Evangelist says that the Son is in the Bosom of God the Father, and the
children of the Church think rightly, and affirm that He is therefore of the Father and in
the Father, and contend and that aright, that the true mode of Generation must be
preserved; straightway they that are drunk with all unlearning laugh outright and even
dare to say: Your opinion, sirs, is all nonsense: for not well-instructedly do ye think of
God, deeming that because the Son is said to be in the Bosom of the Father, He is
therefore wholly of His Essence, and foolishly imagining that He is the Fruit of the
Inoriginate Nature. For have ye not heard, say they, in the Gospel parables, when Christ
Himself was discoursing of the Rich man and Lazarus, that it came to pass that Lazarus
died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom? will ye then grant, because
Lazarus was in the bosom of Abraham, that therefore he is of him and in him by nature, or
will ye not rightly refuse to say this, and yourselves too with us allow that love is
meant by the "bosom"? we say therefore that the Son is in the Bosom of God the Father,
instead of in His love, as Himself also says, The Father loveth the Son.

But when the fault-finders hit us with these words, though they be zealous to nought but
railing, then we too will answer them, arraying against them the right word of the truth:
The bosom, good sirs, according to you means love: for this we just now heard you say.
Shall we then, since God loved the world, as the Saviour saith, and The Lord loveth the
gates of Sion, according to the holy Psalmist, fearlessly say that both the world itself
and the gates of Sion are in the bosom of God the Father? And when He says too to the
hierophant Moses, Put thine hand into thy bosom, does He bid him, tell me, love his hand
and not rather keep it hidden? Then how shall we not incur great laughter hereby, yea
rather how shall we not behave with impiety towards the Father Himself, if we say that all
things are in His Bosom, and make that common to the rest which is the special prerogative
of the Only-Begotten, in order that the Son may have nought above the creature?

Hence bidding good bye to their ill-counsel, we will go on the straight road of thoughts
of the Truth, when the Son is said to be in the Bosom of the Father, conceiving of Him as
of Him and in Him: and accurately taking in the force of the thought, we shall find it
thus and not otherwise. The Only-Begotten God, he says, Which is in the Bosom of the
Father, He hath declared. For when he said Only-Begotten and God, he straightway says,
Which is in the Bosom of the Father, that He may be conceived of as Son of Him and in Him
Naturally, saying Bosom of the Father instead of Essence, as by corporeal simile. For
things manifest are types of things spiritual, and things among us lead us by the hand to
the apprehension of the things which are above us: and the corporal things are often taken
in the way of image and introduce to us the apprehension of subtler thoughts, even though
they be in their proper time understood as they were uttered, as I mean that to Moses, Put
thine hand into thy bosom. And it will no way hurt our argument to say that Lazarus was
laid in Abraham's bosom, but will aid it rather and will go along with our thoughts. For
the Divine Scripture says so to speak thus: Lazarus having died and deceased from his life
in the body, was carried into Abraham's bosom, instead of "was numbered among Abraham's
children." For "I have made thee a father of many nations," said God to him, for so is it
somewhere written of him, For a father of many nations have I made thee.

19, 20 And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from
Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not; but confessed, I am
not the Christ. The Evangelist recalls his own words and endeavours to explain to us more
fully (doing exceeding well) what he had already told us told us briefly as in summary.
For having said There was a man sent from God, whose name was John: the same came for a
witness, to bear witness of the Light, needs does he bring in the mode also of the witness
given by him. For when, he says, the chiefs of the Jewish divisions after the Law, sent
priests and Levites to him, bidding them ask him, what he would say of himself, then very
clearly did he confess, spurning all shame for the truth's sake. For he said, I am not the
Christ. Therefore neither do I, says he, the compiler of this Book, lie saying of him, He
was not the Light but to bear witness of the Light.

21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? and he saith, I am not. Art thou that
Prophet? And he answered, No. Having said by way of explanation, he confessed, I am not
the Christ; he tries to shew how or in what manner the confession was made; and he appears
to me to wish thereby to lay bare the ill-instructedness of the Jews. For professing
themselves to be wise they became fools, and puffed up at their knowledge of the Law, and
ever putting forward the commandments of Moses and asserting that they were perfectly
instructed in the words of the holy Prophets, by their foolish questions they are
convicted of being wholly uninstructed. For the hierophant Moses saying that the Lord
should be revealed as a Prophet foretold to the children of Israel, The Lord thy God will
raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, unto
Him shall ye hearken; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb.
The blessed Isaiah, introducing to us the forerunner and fore-messenger, says, The voice
of one crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight:
and in addition to these the Prophet Joel 13 says of the Tishbite (he was Elias) Behold, I
send you Elijah the Tishbite 14 who shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children,
and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, lest I come and smite the earth with a
curse.

There being then three, who were promised should come, Christ and John and Elias, the Jews
expect that more will come, that they may rightly hear, Ye do err not knowing the
Scriptures. For when they enquired of the blessed Baptist and learned that he was not the
Christ, they answer, What then? art thou Elias? and on his saying I am not, when they
ought to have asked respecting the fore-runner (for he it was that remained) they
ignorantly return to Christ Himself, Who was revealed through the Law as a Prophet. For
see what they say, not knowing what was told them through Moses, Art thou the Prophet? and
he answered, No. For he was not the Christ, as he had already before declared. 22, 23 What
sayest thou of thyself? I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. He accuses them
sharply as knowing nothing, and accredits the design or purpose entrusted to him by
Prophetic testimony. For I come, he says, to say nothing else than that He, The Looked
for, is at length at the doors, yea rather the Lord within the doors. Be ye ready to go
whatsoever way He bids you, ye have gone the way given you through Moses, take up that by
Christ: for this the choir of the holy Prophets foretold you.

A setting forth of sayings concerning the way that is after Christ. Isaiah. Come ye and
let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will
teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths. The same. And an highway shall be
there and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; no lion shall be there nor
any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, but the redeemed shall walk there. The same. I
will give beginning 15 to Sign, and will exhort Jerusalem unto the way. The same. And I
will bring the blind by a way that they knew not: I will lead them in paths that they have
not known. Jeremiah. Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where is the
good way and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for you souls.

What then is the good way and that purifies those who walk in it, let Christ Himself say:
I am the Way. 24 And they had been sent from the Pharisees. They who were sent from the
Jews (they were Levites and certain of those who belonged to the priesthood) were
convicted of asking foolish questions. For supposing that Christ was one person, the
Prophet declared by the Law another, they said, after the holy Baptist had said, I am not
the Christ, Art thou the Prophet? But lo, the multitude of the Pharisees also is caught in
conceit of wisdom rather than having really an accurate knowledge of the Divine oracles.
For why, it says, baptizest thou at all, if thou be not the Christ nor Elias neither the
Prophet? and they are shewn again to be full of no small senselessness against the
Baptist. For they do not, it seems, vouchsafe to put him in the number of those expected,
but sick with the haughtiness that was their foster-sister 17, they deem that he is
nought, albeit he be fore-announced by the Prophet's voice. For though they heard, I am
the voice of one crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord: receiving not
his word, they rebuke him without restraint saying after this sort: There is nought in
thee, Sir, worthy of credit, nor wondrous nor great: why baptizest thou even at all? why
dost thou, who art absolutely nothing, take in hand so great a thing? It was the habit of
the ungodly Pharisees to act thus, to disparage one who was already come, to pretend to
honour one who was to come. For in order that they might always procure for themselves
honours at the hand of the Jews, and might procure to themselves incomes of money, they
desire that none save themselves should appear illustrious. For thus slew they the heir
Himself also, saying Come let us kill Him and let us seize on His inheritance.

26 I baptize with water. Much enduringly does the blessed Baptist bear with the fault
finders: and very seasonably does he make the declaration regarding himself a basis of
saving preaching: and teaches those who were sent from the Pharisees now even against
their will that Christ was within the doors. For I, he says, am bringing in an
introductory Baptism, washing those defiled by sin with water for a beginning of penitence
and teaching them to go up from the lower unto the more perfect. For this were to
accomplish in act, what I was sent to preach, Prepare ye, I mean, the way of the Lord. For
the Giver of the greater and most notable gifts and Supplier of all perfection of good
things, standeth among you, unknown as yet by reason of the veil of flesh, but so much
surpassing me the Baptist, that I must deem myself not to have the measure even of a
servant's place in His Presence. For this I deem is the meaning of, I am not worthy to
unloose His shoe-latchet.

And in saying what is true, he works something else that is useful, for he persuades the
haughty Pharisee to think lowlily, and brings himself in as an example of this. But he
says that these things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, putting this too as a sign of
accurate and careful narration. For we are all accustomed, so to speak, in our accounts of
things that require it to mention also the places where they happened. Cyril Arch-Bishop
of Alexandria on the Gospel according to John, Book I.


COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V
===========================================

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V continued

BOOK II

29 The next day he seeth Jesus coming to him. In a very little time, the Baptist is
declared to be Prophet alike and Apostle. For Whom he was heralding as coming, Him now
come he points out. Therefore, he bounded beyond even the measure of prophets, as the
Saviour Himself saith when discoursing with the Jews concerning him, What went ye out into
the wilderness for to see? A prophet, yea, I say unto you and more than a prophet. For
they in their times prophesied that Christ should be revealed, but he, crying that He
shall come, also pointed Him out come. For the next day, saith he, he seeth Jesus coming
to him. And saith, Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world. No
longer has prepare ye the way fit place, since He at length is seen and is before the eyes
for Whom the preparation is made: the nature of the thing began to need other words. It
needed to explain, Who He is Who is come, and to whom He maketh His descent Who hath come
to us from Heaven. Behold, therefore, saith he, the Lamb of God Which taketh away the sin
of the world, Whom the Prophet Isaiah did signify to us, saying, He is brought as a lamb
to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb: Whom of old, too, saith he,
the law of Moses typified, but then it saved in part, not extending mercy to all (for it
was a type and shadow):

but now He Who of old was dimly pictured, the very Lamb, the spotless Sacrifice, is led to
the slaughter for all, that He might drive away the sin of the world, that He might
overturn the destroyer of the earth, that dying for all He might bring to nought death,
that He might undo the curse that is upon us, that He might at length end Dust thou art,
and unto dust shalt thou return, that He might become the second Adam, not of the earth,
but from heaven, and might be the beginning of all good to the nature of man, deliverance
from the imported corruption, Bestower of eternal life, foundation of our reconciliation
to God, beginning of godliness and righteousness, way to the Kingdom of Heaven. For one
Lamb died for all, saving the whole flock on earth to God the Father, One for all, that He
might subject all to God, One for all, that He might gain all: that at length all should
not henceforth live to themselves but to Him Which died for them and rose again. For since
we were in many sins, and therefore due to death and corruption, the Father hath given the
Son a redemption for us, One for all, since all are in Him, and He above all. One died for
all, that all should live in Him. For death having swallowed up the Lamb for all, hath
vomited forth all in Him and with Him.

For all we were in Christ, Who on account of us and for us died and rose again. But sin
being destroyed, how could it be that death which was of it and because of it should not
altogether come to nothing? The root dying, how could the shoot yet survive? wherefore
should we yet die, now that sin hath been destroyed? therefore jubilant in the Sacrifice
of the Lamb of God we say: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? For
all iniquity, as the Psalmist sings somewhere, shall stop her mouth, no longer able to
accuse those who have sinned from infirmity. For it is God that justifieth, who is he that
condemneth? Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us,
that we might escape the curse from transgression. 30 This is He of Whom I said. He leads
the hearers to remembrance of his words, and yields to Christ the superiority in glory,
accomplishing the work, not of love, but rather of truth and necessity. For the creature
is subject, even if it willeth not, to the Creator? the bond to the Lord, the supplied to
the Giver. But in what manner Christ was after John, but preferred before him, for He was
before him, as himself confesseth, we have spoken sufficiently in what has preceded. 31
And I knew Him not, but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come
baptizing with water.

He that leaped in the depth of the womb of his mother at the voice of the Holy Virgin
while yet bearing the Lord, prophet before the travail-pang, disciple in the womb, says of
the Saviour, I knew Him not, and says truly, for he does not lie. For God knows all things
of Himself and untaught, but the creature, by being taught. For the Spirit indwelling in
the Saints, fulfils what is lacking, and gives to human nature His Own good, I mean,
knowledge of things to come, and of the hidden mysteries. Therefore the holy Baptist
saying that he does not know the Lord, will by no means speak untruly, in regard of the
property of human nature, and the measure befitting the creature, but will attribute the
knowledge of all things to God Alone, Who through the Holy Ghost enlighteneth man to the
apprehension of hidden things. And very profitably doth he say that of himself he knew not
Christ, but is come for that very purpose, to make Him manifest to Israel, that he may not
seem to run of his own accord to bear testimony, nor be thought by any the minister of his
own will, but the worker of the Divine dispensation, the minister of the Counsel from
above revealing to him the Lamb Which taketh away the sin of the world.

In order therefore that the Jews may the more easily come to believe on our Saviour
Christ, and may have the most worthy conception of Him, he says that having not known Him,
he knows Him, that they may understand then at length God Who revealed Him, and awestruck
at the judgment from above, may receive his word concerning Him, and, seeing the servant
so great, may proportionally estimate the Dignity of the Master. For his saying, that he
was come to make Him manifest to Israel, how does it not denote the care belonging to a
servant?

Chapter I. That the Holy Ghost is in the Son not by participation, not from without, but
Essentially and by Nature.

32, 33 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove,
and It abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but He That sent me to baptize with water, the
Same said unto me, Upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him,
the Same is He Which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Having said above that he knew Him
not, he profitably explains and uncovers the Divine Mystery, both shewing that He Who told
him was God the Father, and clearly relating the manner of the revelation. By all does he
profit the mind of the headers; and whereby he says that the Mystery of Christ to men-ward
was taught him of God, he shews that his opposers are fighting against the decree from
above, and to their own peril arraying themselves against the mighty purpose of the
Father. For this was the part of one skillfully persuading them to desist from their vain
counsel, and to receive Him Who by the goodwill of the Father came for the salvation of
all. He therefore testifieth, both that he saw the Spirit descending from Heaven upon Him,
in the form of a Dove, and that It abode upon Him. Then besides, he says that himself was
the ear-witness of Him Who sent him to baptize with water, that He upon Whom the Spirit
came and abode upon Him is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Most worthy of belief
then the witness, supernatural the sign, above all the Father Who revealed.

And these things are thus. But perchance the heretic fond of carping will jump up, and
with a big laugh, say; What again, sirs, say ye to this too, or what argument will ye
bring forth, wresting that which is written? Lo, he saith that the Spirit descendeth upon
the Son; lo, He is anointed by God the Father; That Which He hath not, He receives
forsooth, the Psalmist co-witnessing with us and saying, as to Him: Wherefore God, Thy
God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. How then will the Son
any more be Consubstantial with the Perfect Father, not being Himself Perfect, and
therefore anointed? To this then I think it right to say to those who overturn the holy
doctrines of the Church, and pervert the truth of the Scriptures: Awake, ye drunkards,
from your wine, that viewing the clear beauty of the truth, ye may be able with us to cry
to the Son: Of a truth Thou art the Son of God. For if thou fully believe that He is by
Nature God, how will He not have perfection? For time is it that ye now speak impiously
against the Father Himself also: for whence must He needs, as thou sayest, have
perfection? how will He not be brought down to the abasement of His Offspring, which
according to you is imperfect, in that the Divine Essence in the Son has once received the
power of not having Perfection, according to your unlearned and uninstructed reasoning?

For we will not divide that Great and Untaint Nature into different Words, so that it
should be imperfect perchance in one, and again Perfect in the other. Since the definition
of human nature too is one in respect of all men, and equal in all of us, what man will be
less, qua man? but neither will he be considered more so than another. And I suppose that
one angel will differ in nothing from another angel in respect of their being what they
are, angels to wit, from sameness of nature, being all linked with one another unto one
nature. How then can the Nature Which is Divine and surpassing all, shew Itself in a state
inferior to things originate in Its own special good, and endure a condition which the
creature cannot endure? How will It be at all simple and uncompounded, if Perfection and
imperfection appear in It? For It will be compounded of both, since Perfection is not of
the same kind as imperfection. For if they be of the same kind, and there be no difference
between them, every thing which is perfect will without distinction be also imperfect: and
if ought again be imperfect, this too will be perfect. And the charge against the Son will
be nought, even though according to your surmisings He appear not Perfect: but neither
will the Father Himself, though witnessed to in respect of His Perfection, surpass the
Son, and there is an end of our dispute.

But if much interval severs imperfection from perfection, and the Divine Nature admits
both together, It is compound, and not simple. But perchance some one will say, that
contraries are incompatible, and not co-existent in one subject at the same time, as for
instance in a body white and black skin together. Well, my friend, and very bravely hast
thou backed up my argument. For if the Divine Nature be One, and there be none other than
It, how, tell me, will It admit of contraries? How will things unlike to one another come
together into one subject? But since the Father is by Nature God, the Son too is by Nature
God. He will therefore in nothing differ, in respect of being Perfect, from the Father,
since He is begotten of His Divine and most Perfect Essence. For must not He needs be
Perfect Who is of a Perfect Parent, since He is both His exact Likeness, and the express
Image of His Person, as it is written? But every one will I suppose consent and agree to
this. Or let him come forward and say, how the Son is the exact Image of the Perfect
Father, not having Perfection in His Own Nature, according to the uncounsel of some. For
since He is the Impress and Image, He is Himself too perfect as He, Whose Image He is.

But, says one, John saw the Spirit descending from Heaven upon the Son, and He has
Sanctification from without, for He receives it as not having it. Time then is it to call
Him openly a creature, barely honoured with a little excellence, perfected and sanctified
in equal rank with the rest, and having His supply of good things an acquired one. Then
how does the Evangelist not lie, when he says, Of His fulness have all we received? For
how will He be full in His Own Nature, Who Himself receiveth from Another? Or how will God
be at all conceived of as Father if the Only-Begotten is a creature, and not rather Son?
For if this be so, both Himself will be falsely called Father, and the Son will not be
Truth, having upon Him a spurious dignity, and a title of bare words. The whole therefore
will come to nothing; the Father being neither truly father, nor the Son this by Nature,
which He is said to be. But if God be truly Father, He surely has whereof He is Father,
the Son, that is, of Himself.

Then how will the Godhead Holy by Nature beget that of Itself which is void of holiness,
and bring forth Its own Fruit destitute of Its own inherent Properties? For if He hath
sanctification from without, as they babbling say;----they must needs confess, even
against their will, that He Was not always holy, but became so afterwards, when the Spirit
descended upon Him, as John saith. How then was the Son holy even before the Incarnation?
for so did the Seraphim glorify Him, repeating the Holy, in order, from the first to the
third time. If then He was holy, even before the Incarnation, yea rather being ever with
the Father, how needed He a sanctifier, and this in the last times, when He became Man? I
marvel how this too escapes them, with all their love of research. For must we not needs
conceive, that the Son could at any time reject sanctification, if it be not in Him
essentially, but came to Him as it does to us, or any other reasonable creature? But that
which falls away from sanctification, will it not be altogether under the bonds of sin,
and sink to the worse, no longer retaining power to be apart from vice? Therefore neither
will the Son be found to be unchangeable, and the Psalmist will lie crying in the Spirit
as to Him, But Thou art the Same.

Besides what has been already said, let this too be considered, for it brings in a kindred
idea: All reasoning will demonstrate that the partaken is somewhat other by nature than
the partaker. For if this be not true, but that shall in no wise differ from this, and is
the same; that which partakes of ought partakes of itself, which is incredible even to
think of (for how can any one be imagined to partake of himself?). But if the things
mentioned lie altogether in natural diversity one to another, and the necessity of
reasoning separates them, let them who give the Spirit by participation to the Only-
Begotten, see to what a depth of impiety they sink unawares. For if the Son is partaker of
the Spirit, and the Spirit is by Nature holy, He Himself will not be by Nature holy, but
is shewn to be hardly so through combination with another, transelemented by grace to the
better, than that wherein He was at first. But let the fighter against God again see, into
how great impiety the question casts him down. For first some change and turning, as we
said before, will be found to exist respecting the Son. And being according to you
changed, and having advanced unto the better, He will be shewn to be not only not inferior
to the Father, but even somehow to have become superior: and how this is, we will say,
taking it from the Divine Scripture. The divine Paul says somewhere of Him:

Be each among you so 1 minded, according to what was also in Christ Jesus, Who being in
the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, and
took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found
in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself. Since then even before the Incarnation, He was in
the form and equality of the Father, but at the time of the Incarnation receiving the
Spirit from Heaven was sanctified, according to them, and became by reason of this better
alike and greater than Himself, He surpasses at length it is plain even the measure of His
Father. And if on receiving the Spirit He mounted up unto dignity above that of the
Father, then is the Spirit superior even to the Father Himself, seeing that He bestows on
the Son the superiority over Him. Who then will not shudder at the mere hearing of this?
For hard is it in truth even to go through such arguments, but no otherwise can the harm
of their stubbornness be driven off. Therefore we will say again to them: If when the Word
of God became Man, He is then also sanctified by receiving the Spirit:

but before the Incarnation was in the Form and Equality of the Father, not yet according
to them sanctified, time is it they should boldly say, that God the Father is not holy, if
the Word Who is in all things altogether Con-formal and Equal to Him, was not holy in the
beginning, but barely in the last times became so. And again, if He is truly the Word of
God, Who receiveth the Spirit, and is sanctified in His Own Nature, let our opponents say,
whether in doing this, He became greater or less than Himself, or remained the Same. For
if He hath nothing more from the Spirit, but remaineth the same as He was, be not offended
at learning that It descended on Him. But if He was injured by receiving It, and became
less, you will introduce to us the Word as passible, and will accuse the Essence of the
Father as wronging rather than sanctifying. But if He became better by receiving the
Spirit, but was in the Form and Equality of the Father, even before, according to you, He
became bettered, the Father hath not attained unto the height of glory, but will be in
that measure of it, in which the Son Who hath advanced to the better was Con-formal and
Equal to Him. Convenient is it then, I deem, to say to the ill-instructed heretics, Behold
o foolish people and without understanding, which have eyes, and see not; which have ears
and hear not;

for the god of this world hath indeed blinded the eyes of them, which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them: worthy of pity are they
rather than of anger. For they understand not, what they read. But that the reasoning is
true, will be clear from hence, even if we have not, by our previous attempts, made the
demonstration perfectly clear. Again shall this that is spoken by the mouth of Paul be
brought forward: Be each among you, saith he, so minded, according to what was also in
Christ Jesus, Who being in the Form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God,
but emptied Himself, and took upon Him the Form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men, and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself. Lo, he much marvels at
the Son, as being Equal and Con-formal with God the Father, not, by reason of His Love to
us, seizing this, but descending to lowliness, through the Form of a servant, emptied by
reason of His Manhood. But if, sirs, He on receiving the Spirit were sanctified rather,
when He became Man, and were, through the sanctification, rendered superior to Himself,
into what kind of lowliness shall we see Him to have descended? How is That made low that
was exalted, how did That descend that was sanctified, or how did it not rather ascend,
and was exalted for the better? What emptiness hath filling through the Spirit? or how
will He at all be thought to have been Incarnate for our sakes, Who underwent so great
profit in respect of Himself? How did the Rich become poor for our sakes, who was enriched
because of us?

How was He rich even before His Advent, Who according to them received in it what He had
not, to wit the Spirit? Or how will He not rather justly offer to us thank-offering for
what by means of us He gained? Be astonished, as it is written, O ye heavens, at this: and
be horribly afraid, saith the Lord: for the people of the heretics have in truth committed
two evils, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm, and think it not
grievous thus to incur such danger in the weightiest matters. For else would they,
shedding bitter tears from their eyes, and lifting up a mighty voice on high, have
approached, saying, Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips.
Incline not my heart to words of wickedness. For words of wickedness in truth are their
words, travailing with extremest mischief to the hearers. But we, having expelled their
babbling from our heart, will walk in the right way of the faith, bearing in mind that
which is written: Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself
against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience
of Christ. Come then, and bringing into captivity our mind as to the subjects before us,
let us subject it to the glory of the Only-Begotten, bringing all things wisely to His
obedience, that is, to the mode of the Incarnation.

For, being Rich, for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich.
Receive then, if you please, our proof through that also which is now before us, opening a
forbearing ear to our words. The Divine Scripture testifies that man was made in the Image
and Likeness of God Who is over all. And indeed, he who compiled the first book for us
(Moses, who above all men was known to God) says, And God created man, in the Image of God
created He him. But that through the Spirit he was sealed unto the Divine Image, himself
again taught us, saying, And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. For the Spirit
at once began both to put life into His formation and in a Divine manner to impress His
own Image thereon. Thus the most excellent Artificer God, having formed the reasonable
living creature upon the earth, gave him the saving commandment. And he was in Paradise,
as it is written, still keeping the Gift, and eminent in the Divine Image of Him That made
him, through the Holy Ghost That indwelt him. But when perverted by the wiles of the
devil, he began to despise his Creator, and by trampling on the law assigned him, to
grieve his Benefactor, He recalled the grace given to him, and he that was made unto life
then first heard Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And now the Likeness to
God was through the inroad of sin defaced, and no longer was the Impress bright, but
fainter and darkened because of the transgression.

But when the race of man had reached to an innumerable multitude, and sin had dominion
over them all, manifoldly despoiling each man's soul, his nature was stripped of the
ancient grace; the Spirit departed altogether, and the reasonable creature fell into
extremest folly, ignorant even of its Creator. But the Artificer of all, having endured a
long season, at length pities the corrupted world, and being Good hastened to gather
together to those above His runaway flock upon earth; and decreed to trans-element human
nature anew to the pristine Image through the Spirit. For no otherwise was it possible
that the Divine Impress should again shine forth in him, as it did aforetime. What then He
contrives to this end, how He implanted in us the inviolate grace, or how the Spirit again
took root in man, in what manner nature was re-formed to its old condition, it is meet to
say. The first man, being earthy, and of the earth, and having, placed in his own power,
the choice between good and evil, being master of the inclination to each, was caught of
bitter guile, and having inclined to disobedience, falls to the earth, the mother from
whence he sprang, and over-mastered now at length by corruption and death, transmits the
penalty to his whole race. The evil growing and multiplying in us, and our understanding
ever descending to the worse, sin reigned, and thus at length the nature of man was shewn
bared of the Holy Ghost Which indwelt him. For the Holy Spirit of wisdom will flee deceit,
as it is written, nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin. Since then the first
Adam preserved not the grace given him of God, God the Father was minded to send us from
Heaven the second Adam. For He sendeth in our likeness His own Son Who is by Nature
without variableness or change, and wholly unknowing of sin, that as by the disobedience
of the first, we became subject to Divine wrath, so through the obedience of the Second,
we might both escape the curse, and its evils might come to nought.

But when the Word of God became Man, He received the Spirit from the Father as one of us,
(not receiving ought for Himself individually, for He was the Giver of the Spirit); but
that He Who knew no sin, might, by receiving It as Man, preserve It to our nature, and
might again inroot in us the grace which had left us. For this reason, I deem, it was that
the holy Baptist profitably added, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven, and It abode
upon Him. For It had fled from us by reason of sin, but He Who knew no sin, became as one
of us, that the Spirit might be accustomed to abide in us, having no occasion of departure
or withdrawal in Him. Therefore through Himself He receives the Spirit for us, and renews
to our nature, the ancient good. For thus is He also said for our sakes to become poor.
For being rich, as God and lacking no good thing, He became Man lacking all things, to
whom it is somewhere said and that very well, What hast thou that thou didst not receive?
As then, being by Nature Life, He died in the Flesh for our sakes, that He might overcome
death for us, and raise up our whole nature together with Himself (for all we were in Him,
in that He was made Man): so does He also receive the Spirit for our sakes, that He may
sanctify our whole nature. For He came not to profit Himself, but to be to all us the Door
and Beginning and Way of the Heavenly Goods. For if He had not pleased to receive, as Man,
or to suffer too, as one of us, how could any one have shewn that He humbled Himself? or
how would the Form of a servant have been fittingly kept, if nothing befitting a servant
were written of Him? Let not then the all-wise account of the dispensation be pulled to
pieces, whereof the divine Paul himself rightly cries in admiration: To the intent that
now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the
manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus
our Lord. For wisdom indeed and God-befitting, is the great mystery of the Incarnation
seen to be.

Such an apprehension of our Saviour do I suppose that we who choose to be pious, and
rejoice in orthodox doctrines, ought to have. For we too will not descend to such lack of
reason as to suppose that in the Son by Nature was the Spirit by participation and not
rather essentially inherent even as in the Father Himself. For as of the Father, so also
of the Son, is the Holy Ghost. So did we also read in the Divine Scriptures. For it says:
After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus 2
suffered them not. But if it seem good to any one, with over contentious zeal, to object
to our words hereon, and to assert again, that the Spirit is in the Son by participation,
or that, not being in Him before, He then came to be in Him, when He was baptized, in the
period of His Incarnation, let him see, into what and how great absurdities he will fall.
For first, the Saviour saith: Among them that are born of women there hath not arisen a
greater than John the Baptist. And the word is true: but we see him who hath attained to
the summit of glory and virtue that belong to us, honouring Christ with incomparable
excellencies. For I am not worthy, says he, to stoop down and unloose the latchet of His
shoes. How then is it not absurd, yea rather impious, to believe that John was filled with
the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb, because it is so written of him: and to
suppose that his Master, yea rather the Master and Lord of all, then first received the
Spirit, when He was baptized, albeit holy Gabriel says to the holy Virgin: The Holy Ghost
shall come upon thee, and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also
that holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. And let the
lover of learning see, with how great a meaning the word travaileth. For of John, it
saith, he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost (for the Holy Ghost was in him as a gift,
and not essentially), but of the Saviour, he no longer saith shall be filled, (in
rightness of conception,) but that holy Thing which shall be born of thee. Nor did he add
shall be, for It was always Holy by Nature, as God.

But since I deem that we ought to seek after what is profitable from all quarters; the
voice of the archangel having been once brought forward, come, let us exercise ourselves a
little in it. The Holy Ghost, says he, shall come upon thee, and the Power of the Highest
shall overshadow thee; therefore also That Holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall
be called the Son of God. Let him then, who from great unlearning, opposeth the right
doctrines of the Church, tell us, whether even before the Incarnation the the Word of God
the Father was Son, or had the glory in name only, but was a bastard, and falsely called.
For if he say that He was not the Son at all, he will deny the Father (for of whom will He
be the Father, if He have no Son?): and he will think contrary to all the Divine
Scriptures. But if he confess that the Son even before the Incarnation both was and was
called Son, how does the Archangel tell us that That which should be born of the holy
Virgin shall be called the Son of God, albeit He was this by Nature even long before? As
therefore the Son being from eternity with the Father, as having Origin of Being, is at
the time of His Incarnation called Son of God, from His appearing in the world with a
Body;

so, having in Himself Essentially His Own Spirit, He is said to receive It as Man,
preserving to the Humanity the order befitting it, and with it appropriating for our sakes
the things befitting it. But how can the Word be thought of at all apart from Its Own
Spirit? For would it not be absurd to say, that the spirit of man, which is in him,
according to the definition of nature, and for the completeness of the living-being, was
separated from him? But I suppose that this is most evident to all. How then shall we
sever the Spirit from the Son, Which is so inherent and essentially united, and through
Him proceeding and being in Him by Nature, that It cannot be thought to be Other than He
by reason both of Identity of working, and the very exact likeness of Nature. Hear what
the Saviour saith to His own disciples, If ye love Me, keep My Commandments, and I will
pray the Father, and He shall give you Another Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Whom the
world cannot receive. Lo, plainly He calls the Holy Ghost Spirit of Truth. But that He and
none other than He is the Truth, hear Him again saying, I am the Truth. The Son by Nature
then being and being called Truth, see how great Oneness with Him the Spirit hath. For the
disciple John saith somewhere of our Saviour, This is He that came by water and blood and
the spirit 3, Jesus Christ;

not by water only, but by water and blood: and it is the Spirit That beareth witness,
because the Spirit is Truth. Therefore also, the Holy Ghost indwelling in our inner man,
Christ Himself is said to dwell therein, and so it is. And indeed the blessed Paul most
clearly teaching this, says, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, If so be that
the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none
of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life
because of righteousness. Apply, sir, a quick ear to what is said. Having named the Spirit
of Christ That dwelleth in us, he straightway added, If Christ be in you, introducing the
exact likeness of the Son with the Spirit, Which is His Own and proceeding from Him by
Nature. Therefore He is called the Spirit of adoption also, and in Him we cry Abba,
Father. And as the blessed John somewhere says, Hereby know we that He dwelleth in us,
because He hath given us of His Spirit.

I think then that these things will suffice, to enable the children of the Church to repel
the mischief of the heretics. But if any one be soused in the unmixed strong drink of
their unlearning, and suppose that the Son then first received the Spirit, when He became
Man: let him shew that the Word of God was not holy before the Incarnation, and we will
hold our peace. But one may well wonder that the holy Evangelist every where preserves
with much observance what befits the Divine Nature. For since he said above, that no man
hath seen God at any time, and now says that the blessed Baptist saw the Spirit descend
from Heaven upon the Son, he adds of necessity, I saw the Spirit, but in the form of a
Dove, not Himself by Nature, as He is, but shadowed in the gentlest animal; that in this
again He might be shewn to preserve His Natural Affinity and Likeness to the Son, Who
saith, Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Therefore the Spirit will not fall
away from being God by Nature: for the never having been seen at any time has been
preserved to Him, save under the form of a dove, by reason of the need of the disciple.
For the blessed Baptist says that the descent of the Spirit was given him by way of a sign
and token, adding to his testimonies respecting our Saviour, He that sent me to baptize
with water, the Same said unto me, Upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and
remaining on Him, the Same is He Which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Therefore I think we
may fitly laugh to scorn those senseless heretics who take as matter of fact, that which
was set forth by way of sign, even though it took place as part of the oeconomy, as hath
been already said, for the need's sake of the human race.

34 And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God. Sure is the witness; who, what
he hath actually seen, that he also speaketh. For haply he was not ignorant of that which
is written, That which thine eyes have seen, tell. I saw then, says he, the sign, and
understood That Which was signified by it. I bear record that this is the Son of God, Who
was proclaimed by the Law that is through Moses, and heralded by the voice of the holy
Prophets. The blessed Evangelist seems to me again to say with some great confidence, This
is the Son of God, that is, the One, the Only by Nature, the Heir of the Own Nature of the
Father, to Whom we too, sons by adoption, are conformed and through Whom we are called by
grace to the dignity of sonship. For as from God the Father every family in Heaven and
earth is named, from His being properly, and first, and truly Father, so is all sonship
too from the Son, by reason of His being properly and Alone truly Son, not bastard nor
falsely-called, but of the Essence of God the Father, not by off-cutting or emanationor
division or severance (for the Divine Nature is altogether Impassible): but as One of One,
ever Co-existing and Co-eternal and Innate in Him Who begat Him, being in Him, and coming
forth from Him, Indivisible and without Dimensions; since the Divinity is neither after
the manner of a body, nor bounded by space, nor of nature such as to make progressive
footsteps.

But like as from fire proceedeth the heat that is in it, appearing to be separate from it
in idea, and to be other than it, though it is of it and in it by nature, and proceedeth
from it without suffering any harm in the way of offcutting, division, or emanation (for
it is preserved whole in the whole fire): so shall we conceive of the Divine Offspring
too, thinking thereon in a manner most worthy of God, and believing that the Son subsists
of Himself, yet not excluding Him from the One Ineffable Godhead, nor saying that He is
Other in substance than the Father. For then would He no longer be rightly conceived of as
Son, but something other than He, and a new god would arise, other than He That Only Is.
For how shall not that which is not consubstantial with God by Nature, wholly fall away
from being Very God? But since the blessed Baptist is both trustworthy, and of the
greatest repute, and testifieth that This is the Son of God: we will confess the Son to be
altogether Very God, and of the Essence of the Father. For this and nothing else, does the
name of Sonship signify to us.

35, 36 Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples, and looking upon
Jesus as He walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the
world. Already had the blessed Baptist pointed Him out before; but lo, repeating again the
same words, he points Jesus out to his disciples, and calls Him the Lamb of God, and says
that He taketh away the sin of the world, all but bringing his hearers to remembrance of
Him Who saith in the Prophets: I, even I, am He That blotteth out thy transgressions, and
will not remember thy sins. But not in vain does the Baptist repeat the same account of
the Saviour. For it belongs to skill in teaching, to infix in the souls of the disciples
the not yet received word, not shrinking at repetition, but rather enduring it for the
profit of the pupils. For therefore does the blessed Paul too say, To write the same
things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.

37 And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Seest thou the fruit,
handmaid of teaching, yielded therefrom? Seest thou how great gain accrued from
repetition? Let him then who is entrusted with teaching learn from this, to shew himself
superior to all indolence, and to esteem silence more hurtful to himself than to his
hearers, and not to bury the Lord's talent in listless sloth, as in the earth, but rather
to give His money to the exchangers. For the Saviour will receive His own with usury, and
will quicken as seed the word cast in. You have here a most excellent proof of what has
been said. For the Baptist, not shrinking from pointing out the Lord to his disciples, and
from saying a second time, Behold the Lamb of God, is seen to have so greatly profited
them, as to at length even persuade them to follow Him and already to desire discipleship
under Him.

38 Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? Fitly does
the Lord turn to them that follow Him, that thou mayest learn in act that which is sung, I
sought the Lord, and He heard me. For while we do not yet seek the Lord by good habits and
Tightness in believing, we are in some sort behind Him: but when, thirsting after His
Divine law, we track the holy and choice way of righteousness, then at length will He look
upon us, crying aloud what is written, Turn ye unto Me, and I will turn unto you, saith
the Lord of Hosts. But He saith unto them, What seek ye? not as though ignorant (whence
could it be so?), for He knoweth all things, as God; but making the question a beginning
and root of His discourse. They said unto Him, Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?

Like people well instructed do they that are asked reply. For already do they call Him,
Master, thereby clearly signifying their readiness to learn. Then they beg to know His
home, as about therein to tell Him at a fit season of their need. For probably they did
not think it right to make talk on needful subjects the companion of a journey. Be what is
said again to us for a useful pattern. 39 He saith unto them, Come and see. He doth not
point out the house, though asked to do it, but rather bids them come forthwith to it:
teaching first, as by example, that it is not well to cast delays in the way of search
after what is good (for delay in things profitable is altogether hurtful): and this too
besides, that to those who are still ignorant of the holy house of our Saviour Christ,
that is, the Church, it will not suffice to salvation that they should learn where it is,
but that they should enter into it by faith, and see the things mystically wrought
therein.

They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day: for it was about the tenth
hour. Assiduously did the disciples apply themselves to the attainment of the knowledge of
the Divine Mysteries. For I do not think that a fickle mind beseems those who desire to
learn, but rather one most painstaking, and superior to feeble mindedness in good toils,
so as during their whole life time to excel in perfect zeal. For this I think the words,
they abode with Him that day, darkly signify. But when he says, it was about the tenth
hour, we adapting our own discourse to each man's profit, say that in this very thing, the
compiler of Divinity through this so subtle handling again teacheth us, that not in the
beginning of the present world was the mighty mystery of our Saviour made known, but when
time now draws towards its close. For in the last days, as it is written, we shall be all
taught of God. Take again I pray as an image of what has been said about the tenth hour,
the disciples cleaving to the Saviour, of whom the holy Evangelist says that having once
become His guests they abode with Him: that they who through faith have entered into the
holy house, and have run to Christ, may learn that it needs to abide with Him, and not to
desire to be again estranged, either turning aside into sin, or again returning to
unbelief.

40, 41, 42 One of the two which heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew Simon
Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found
the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. They
who even now received the talent, straightway make traffic of their talent, and bring it
to the Lord. For such are in truth obedient and docile souls, not needing many words for
profit, nor bearing the fruit of their instruction, after revolutions of years or months,
but attaining the goal of wisdom along with the commencement of their instruction. For
give, it says, instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and
he will increase in learning. Andrew then saves his brother (this was Peter), having
declared the whole mystery in a brief summary. For we have found, he says, Jesus, as
Treasure hid in a field, or as One Pearl of great price, according to the parables in the
Gospels.

And when Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona, thou shalt be called
Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone. He after a Divine sort looketh upon him, Who
seeth the hearts and reins; and seeth to how great piety the disciple will attain, of how
great virtue he will be possessed, and at what consummation he will leave off. For He Who
knoweth all things before they be is not ignorant of ought. And herein does He specially
instruct him that is called, that being Very God, He hath knowledge untaught. For not
having needed a single word, nor even sought to learn who or whence the man came to Him;
He says of what father he was born, and what was his own name, and permits him to be no
more called Simon, already exercising lordship and power over him, as being His: but
changes it to Peter from Petra 4: for upon him was He about to found His Church.

43 The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee; and findeth Philip, and saith unto
him, Follow Me. Likeminded with those preceding was Philip, and very ready to follow
Christ. For Christ knew that he would be good. Therefore also He says Follow Me, making
the word a token of the grace that was upon him, and wherein he bid him follow, testifying
to him that most excellent was his conversation. For He would not have chosen him, if he
had not been altogether good. 45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have
found Him, of Whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth the Son
of Joseph. Exceeding swift was the disciple unto the bearing fruit, that hereby he might
shew himself akin in disposition to them that had preceded. For he findeth Nathanael, not
simply meeting him coming along, but making diligent search for him. For he knew that he
was most painstaking and fond of learning. Then he says that he had found the Christ Who
was heralded through all the Divine Scripture, addressing himself not as to one ignorant,
but as to one exceedingly well instructed in the learning both of all-wise Moses and of
the prophets. For a not true supposition was prevailing among the Jews as regards our
Saviour Jesus Christ, that He should be of the city or village of Nazareth, albeit the
Divine Scripture says that He is a Bethlehemite, as far as pertains to this. And thou,
Bethlehem, it says, in the land of Judah, house of Ephrata, art little to be among the
thousands of Judah, for out of thee shall He come forth unto Me That is to be ruler in
Israel, Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. For He was brought up
in Nazareth, as the Evangelist himself too somewhere testified, saying, And He came to
Nazareth, where He had been brought up; but He was not thence, but whence we said before,
yea rather, as the voice of the prophet affirmed. Philip therefore following the
supposition of the Jews says, Jesus of Nazareth.

46 Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Nathanael readily agrees that something
great and most fair is that which is expected to appear out of Nazareth 5. It is, I
suppose, perfectly clear, that not only did he take Nazareth as a pledge of that which he
sought, but bringing together knowledge from the law and Prophets, as one fond of learning
he gained swift understanding. Come and see. Sight will suffice for faith, says he, and
having only conversed with Him you will confess more readily, and will unhesitatingly say
that He is indeed the Expected One. But we must believe that there was a Divine and
Ineffable grace, flowing forth with the words of the Saviour, and alluring the souls of
the hearers. For so it is written, that all wondered at the gracious words which proceeded
out of His Mouth. For as His word is mighty in power, so too is it efficacious to
persuade.

47 Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile. Not having yet used proof by means of
signs, Christ endeavoured in another way to persuade both His own disciples, and the wiser
of those that came to Him, that He was by Nature Son and God, but for the salvation of all
was come in human Form. What then was the mode that led to faith? God-befitting knowledge.
For knowledge of all things befitteth God Alone. He receiveth therefore Nathanael, not
hurrying him by flatteries to this state, but by those things whereof he was conscious,
giving him a pledge, that he knoweth the hearts, as God. 48 Whence knowest thou me?
Nathanael begins to wonder, and is called to a now firm faith: but desires yet to learn,
whence He has the knowledge concerning him. For very accurate are learning-seekingand
pious souls. But perhaps he supposed that somewhat of him had been shewn to the Lord by
Philip.

Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee. The Saviour
undid his surmise, saying that even before his meeting and conversing with Philip, He had
seen him under the fig-tree, though not present in Body. Very profitably are both the fig-
tree and the place named, pledging to him the truth of his having been seen. For he that
has already accurate knowledge of what was with him, will readily be admitted. 49 Rabbi,
Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel. He knows that God Alone is Searcher
of hearts, and giveth to none other of men to understand the mind, considering as is
likely that verse in the Psalms, God trieth the hearts and reins. For as accruing to none
else, the Psalmist hath attributed this too as peculiar to the Divine Nature only. When
then he knew that the Lord saw his thoughts revolving in his mind in yet voiceless
whispers, straightway he calls Him Master, readily entering already into discipleship
under Him, and confesses Him Son of God and King of Israel, in Whom are inexistent the
Properties of Divinity, and as one well instructed he affirms Him to be wholly and by
Nature God.

50 Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see
greater things than these. Thou shalt be firmer unto faith, saith He, when thou seest
greater things than these. For he that believed one sign, how shall he not by means of
many be altogether bettered, especially since they shall be more wonderful than those now
wondered at? 51 Verily, verily I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see Heaven open, and the
angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Common now to all is the word
which seals the faith of Nathanael. But in saying that angels shall be seen speeding up
and down upon the Son of Man, that is, ministering and serving His commands, for the
salvation of such as shall believe, He says that then especially shall He be revealed as
being by Nature Son of God. For it is not one another that the rational powers serve but
surely God. And this does not take away subjection among the angels (for this will not be
reasonably called bondage). But we have heard of the Holy Evangelists, that angels came to
our Saviour Christ, and ministered unto Him.

Chap. ii.2,3 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of
Jesus was there; and both Jesus was called, and His disciples, to the marriage. And when
they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine. Seasonably comes
He at length, to the beginning of miracles, even if He seems to have been called to it
without set purpose. For a marriage feast being held (it is clear that it was altogether
holily), the mother of the Saviour is present, and Himself also being bidden comes
together with His own disciples, to work miracles rather than to feast with them, and yet
more to sanctify the very beginning of the birth of man: I mean so far as appertains to
the flesh. For it was fitting that He, Who was renewing the very nature of man, and
refashioning it all for the better, should not only impart His blessing to those already
called into being, but also prepare before grace for those soon to be born, and make holy
their entrance into being.

Receive also yet a third reason. It had been said to the woman by God, In sorrow thou
shalt bring forth children. How then was it not needful that we should thrust off this
curse too, or how else could we escape a condemned marriage? This too the Saviour, being
loving to man, removes. For He, the Delight and Joy of all, honoured marriage with His
Presence, that He might expel the old shame of child-bearing. For if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature; and old things are passed away, as Paul saith, they are become new.
He cometh therefore with. His disciples to the marriage. For it was needful that the
lovers of miracles should be present with the Wonderworker, to collect what was wrought as
a kind of food to their faith. But when wine failed the feasters, His mother called the
Lord being good according to His wonted Love for man, saying, They have no wine. For since
it was in His Power to do whatsoever He would, she urges Him to the miracle.

4 Jesus saith unto her Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Most
excellently did the Saviour fashion for us this discourse also. For it behoved Him not to
come hastily to action, nor to appear a Worker of miracles as though of His Own accord,
but, being called, hardly to come thereto, and to grant the grace to the necessity rather
than to the lookers on. But the issue of things longed for seems somehow to be even more
grateful, when granted not off-hand to those who ask for it, but through a little delay
put forth to most lovely hope. Besides, Christ hereby shews that the deepest honour is due
to parents, admitting out of reverence to His Mother what He willed not as yet to do. 5
His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever He saith unto you, do. The woman having
great influence to the performing of the miracle, prevailed, persuading the Lord, on
account of what was fitting, as her Son. She begins the work by preparing the servants of
the assembly to obey the things that should be enjoined.

7, 8, 9, 10 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up
to the brim. And He saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the
feast. And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made
wine, and knew not whence it was (but the servants which drew the water knew); the
governor of the feast called the bridegroom and saith unto him, Every man at the beginning
doth set forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse; but thou
hast kept the good wine until now. The ministers accomplish what is commanded, and by
unspeakable might was the water changed into wine. For what is hard to Him Who can do all
things? He that calleth into being things which are not, how will He weary, trans-ordering
into what He will things already made? They marvel at the thing, as strange; for such are
Christ's works to look upon. But the governor of the feast charges the bridegroom with
expending what was better on the latter end of the feast, not unfitly, as appears to me,
according to the narration of the story.

11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His
glory, and His disciples believed on Him. Many most excellent things were accomplished at
once through the one first miracle. For honourable marriage was sanctified, the curse on
women put away (for no more in sorrow shall they bring forth children, now Christ has
blessed the very beginning of our birth), and the glory of our Saviour shone forth as the
sun's rays, and more than this, the disciples are confirmed in faith by the miracle. The
historical account then will stop here, but I think we ought to consider the other view of
what has been said, and to say what is therein signified. The Word of God came down then
from Heaven, as He Himself saith, in order that having as a Bridegroom, made human nature
His own, He might persuade it to bring forth the spiritual offspring of Wisdom. And hence
reasonably is the human nature called the bride, the Saviour the Bridegroom; since holy
Scripture carries up language from human things to a meaning that is above us. The
marriage is consummated on the third day, that is, in the last times of the present world:
for the number three gives us beginning, middle, end. For thus is the whole of time
measured. And in harmony with this do we see that which is said by one of the prophets, He
hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us, in the third day
He will raise us up, and we shall live in His Sight. Then shall we know if we follow on to
know the Lord; His going forth is prepared as the morning. For He smote us for the
transgression of Adam, saying, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. That which
was smitten by corruption and death He bound up on the third day:

that is, not in the first, or in the middle, but in the last ages, when for us made Man,
He rendered all our nature whole, raising it from the dead in Himself. Wherefore He is
also called the Firstfruits of them that slept. Therefore in saying it was the third day,
whereon the marriage was being consummated, he signifies the last time. He mentions the
place too; for he says it was in Cana of Galilee. Let him that loves learning again note
well: for not in Jerusalem is the gathering, but without Judaea is the feast celebrated,
as it were in the country of the Gentiles. For it is Galilee of the gentiles, as the
prophet saith. It is I suppose altogether plain, that the synagogue of the Jews rejected
the Bridegroom from Heaven, and that the church of the Gentiles received Him, and that
very gladly. The Saviour comes to the marriage not of His own accord; for He was being
bidden by many voices of the Saints. But wine failed the feasters; for the law perfected
nothing, the Mosaic writing sufficed not for perfect enjoyment, but neither did the
measure of implanted sobriety reach forth so as to be able to save us. It was therefore
true to say of us too, They have no wine. But the Bounteous God doth not overlook our
nature worn out with want of good things. He set forth wine better than the first, for the
letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.

And the law hath no perfection in good things, but the Divine instructions of Gospel
teaching bring in fullest blessing. The ruler of the feast marvels at the wine: for every
one, I suppose, of those ordained to the Divine Priesthood, and entrusted with the house
of our Saviour Christ, is astonished at His doctrine which is above the Law. But Christ
commandeth it to be given to him first, because, according to the voice of Paul, The
husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits. And let the hearer again
consider what I say. 14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves,
and the changers of money sitting. The Jews are again hereby too convicted of despising
the laws given them, and making of no account the Mosaic writings, looking only to their
own love of gain. For whereas the law commanded that they who were about to enter into the
Divine temple should purify themselves in many ways; those who had the power of forbidding
it hindered not the bankers or money-changers, and others besides, whose employment was
gain, usury and increase, in their lusts (for the whole aim of merchants is comprised in
these things): they hindered them not from defiling the holy court, from entering into it
as it were with unwashen feet, yea rather they themselves altogether used to enjoin it,
that God might say truly of them, Many pastors have destroyed My vineyard, they have:
trodden My portion under foot, they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness,
they have made it desolate. For of a truth the Lord's vineyard was destroyed, being taught
to trample on the Divine worship itself, and through the sordid love of gain of those set
over it left bare to all ignorance.

15 And when He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple.
Reasonably is the Saviour indignant at the folly of the Jews. For it befitted to make the
Divine Temple not an house of merchandise, but an house of prayer: for so it iswritten.
But He shows His emotion not by mere words, but with stripes and a scourge thrusts He them
forth of the sacred precincts, justly devising for them the punishment befitting slaves;
for they would not receive the Son Who through faith maketh free. See I pray well
represented as in a picture that which was said through Paul, If any man dishonour the
Temple of God, him shall God dishonour. 16 Take these things hence; make not My Father's
House an house of merchandise. He commands as Lord, He leads by the hand to what is
fitting, as teacher; and along with the punishment He sets before them the declaration of
their offences, through shame thereof not suffering him that is censured to be angry. But
it must be noted that He again calls God His own Father specially, as being Himself and
that Alone by Nature of Him, and truly Begotten. For if it be not so, but the Word be
really Son with us, as one of us, to wit by adoption, and the mere Will of the Father: why
does He alone seize to Himself the boast common to and set before all, saying, Make not My
Father's House, and not rather, our Father's House. For this I suppose would have been
more meet to say, if He had known that Himself too was one of those who are not sons by
Nature. But since the Word knows that He is not in the number of those who are sons by
grace, but of the Essence of God the Father, He puts Himself apart from the rest, calling
God His Father. For it befits those who are called to sonship and have the honour from
without, when they pray to cry, Our Father Which art in Heaven: but the Only Begotten
being Alone One of One, with reason calls God His Own Father.

But if we must, applying ourselves to this passage, harmonize it more spiritually with
that above, the lection must be considered differently. And found in the temple those that
sold oxen and sheep, &c. See again the whole scheme of the Dispensation to usward drawn
out by two things. For with the Cananites, I mean those of Galilee, Christ both feasts and
tarries, and them that bade Him, and hereby honoured Him, He made partakers of His Table;
He both aids them by miracles and fills up that which was lacking to their joy (and what
good thing does He not freely give?): teaching as in a type that He will both receive the
inhabitants of Galilee, that is the Gentiles, called as it were to them through the faith
that is in them, and will bring them into the Heavenly Bridal-chamber, that is unto the
church of the first-born, and will make them sit down with the saints (for the holy
disciples sat down with the feasters): and will make them partake of the Divine and
spiritual feast, as Himself saith, Many shall come from the east and west and shall sit
down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven, nought lacking unto their
joy. For everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. But the disobedient Jews He shall cast
forth of the holy places, and set them without the holy inclosure of the saints; yea, even
when they bring sacrifices He will not receive them: but rather will subject them to
chastisement and the scourge, holden with the cords of their own sins. For hear Him
saying, Take these things hence;

that thou mayest understand again those things which long ago by the mouth of the Prophet
Isaiah He saith, I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts, and I
delight not in the blood of bullocks and of he goats, neither come ye to appear before Me,
for who hath required this at your hand? tread not My courts any more. If ye bring an
offering of fine flour, vain is the oblation, incense is an abomination unto Me; your new
moons and sabbaths and great day I cannot endure, your fasting and rest and feasts My soul
hateth: ye are become satiety unto Me, I will no longer endure your sins. This He most
excellently signifies in type, devising for them the scourge of cords. For scourges are a
token of punishment. 17 And His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of
Thine House hath eaten Me up. The disciples in a short time get perfection of knowledge,
and comparing what is written with the events, already shew great progress for the better.
18 What sign shewest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these things? The multitude of
the Jews are startled at the unwonted authority, and they who are over the temple are
extremely vexed, deprived of their not easily counted gains. And they cannot convict Him
of not having spoken most rightly in commanding them not to exhibit the Divine Temple as a
house of merchandise. But they devise delays to the flight of the merchants, excusing
themselves that they ought not to submit to Him off-hand, nor without investigation to
receive as Son of God Him Who was witnessed to by no sign. 19 Destroy this temple.

To them who of good purpose ask for good things, God very readily granteth them: but to
them who come to Him, tempting Him, not only does He deny their ambition in respect of
what they ask, but also charges them with wickedness. Thus the Pharisees demanding a sign
in other parts of the Gospels the Saviour convicted saying, An evil and adulterous
generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of
the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so
shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. What
therefore He said to those, this to these too with slight change: for these (as did those)
ask, tempting Him. Nor to those who were in such a state of mind would even this sign have
been given, but that it was altogether needful for the salvation of us all.

But we must know that they made this the excuse of their accusation against Him, saying
falsely before Pontius Pilate, what they had not heard. For, say they, This Man saith, I
am able to destroy the Temple of God. Wherefore of them too did Christ speak in the
prophets, False witnesses did rise up: they laid to My charge things that I knew not: and
again, For false witnesses are risen up against Me, and such as breathe out cruelty. But
He does not urge them to bloodshed saying, Destroy this Temple, but since He knew that
they would straightway do it, He indicates expressivelywhat is about to happen. 20 Forty
and six years was this Temple in building, and wilt Thou rear it up in three days? They
mock at the sign, not understanding the depth of the Mystery, but seize on the disease of
their own ignorance, as a reasonable excuse for not obeying Him, and considering the
difficulty of the thing, they gave heed rather as to one speaking at random, than to one
who was promising ought possible to be fulfilled, that that may be shewn to be true that
was written of them, Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not, and ever bow Thou down
their backs: in order that in a manner ever stooping downwards and inclining to the things
alone of the earth, they may receive no sight of the lofty doctrines of piety towards
Christ, not as though God Who is loving to man grudged them those things, but rather with
even justice was punishing them that committed intolerable transgressions.

For see how foolishly they insult Him, not sparing their own souls. For our Lord Jesus
Christ calls God His Father, saying, Make not My Father's House an House of merchandise.
Therefore when they ought now to deem of Him as Son and God, as shining forth from God the
Father, they believe Him to be yet bare man and one of us. Therefore they object the time
that has been spent in the building of the Temple, saying, Forty and six years was this
Temple in building, and wilt Thou rear it up in three days? O drunken with all folly,
rightly, I deem, one might say to you, if a wise soul had been implanted in you, if ye
believe that your Temple is the House of God, how ought ye not to have held Him to be God
by Nature, Who dares fearlessly tell you, Make not My Father's House an House of
merchandise? How then, tell me, should He have need of a long time for the building of one
house? or how should He be powerless for anything whatever, who in days only seven in
number, fashioned this whole universe with ineffable Power, and has His Power in only
willing? For these things the people skilled in the sacred writings ought to have
considered.

21, 22 But He spake of the Temple of His Body. When therefore He was risen from the dead,
His disciples remembered that He had said this unto them: and they believed the Scripture,
and the word which Jesus had said. Acceptable to the wise man is the word of wisdom, and
the knowledge of discipline abideth more easily with men of understanding, and as in wax
not too hard, the impression of seals is well made, so in the more tender hearts of men
the Divine Word is readily infixed: wherefore the hard of heart is also called wicked. The
disciples then, being of a good disposition, become wise, and ruminate the words of divine
Scripture, nourishing themselves to more accurate knowledge, and thence coming firmly to
belief. Since the Body of Christ is called a temple also, how is not the Only-Begotten
Word Which indwelleth therein, God by Nature, since he that is not God cannot be said to
dwell in a Temple? Or let one come forward and say, what saint's body was ever called a
temple; but I do not suppose any one can shew this. I say then, what we shall find to be
true, if we accurately search the Divine Scripture, that to none of the Saints was such
honour attached. And indeed the blessed Baptist, albeit he attained unto the height of all
virtue, and suffered none to exceed him in piety, was through the madness of Herod
beheaded, and yet is no such thing attributed to him. On the contrary, the Evangelist
devised a grosser word for his remains, saying this too, as appears to me by an oeconomy,
in order that the dignity may be reserved to Christ Alone. For he writes thus; And the
blood-shedder to wit, Herod, sent and beheaded John in the prison, and his disciples came
and took up his carcase 6. If the body of John be called a carcase, whose temple will it
be? In another sense indeed, we are called temples of God, by reason of the Holy Ghost
indwelling in us. For we are called the temples of God, and not of ourselves.

But haply some one will say: How then, tell me, doth the Saviour Himself call His own Body
a carcase, For wheresoever He saith the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered
together. To this we say, that Christ saith this not of His Own Body, but in manner and
guise of a parable He signifieth that concourse of the Saints to Him, that shall be at
that time when He appeareth again to us, with the holy angels, in the glory of His Father.
For like as, saith He, flocks of carnivorous birds rush down with a sharp whizzing to
fallen carcases, so shall ye too be gathered together to Me. Which indeed Paul too doth
make known to us, saying, For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible; And again in another place, and we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That therefore which is taken
by way of similitude for an image will no wise damage the force of the truth.

23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in His
Name, when they saw the miracles which He did. Christ ceaseth not from saving and helping.
For some He leads to Himself by wise words, the rest startling by God-befitting Power too,
He taketh in His net to the faith, by the things which they see Him work persuaded to
confess, that the Artificer of these so great wonders is of a truth God. 24 But Jesus did
not commit Himself unto them. Not firmly established is the judgment of new believers, nor
is the mind firmly built upon fresh miracles. And how should they whose course of
instruction was yet so to say green, be already rooted in piety? Therefore Christ doth not
yet commit Himself to the novices, shewing that a great thing and most worthy of love is
affinity with God, and that it doth not just lie before those who desire to have it, but
is achieved by zeal for good, and diligence and time.

Let the stewards of the Mysteries of the Saviour hence learn, not suddenly to admit a man
within the sacred veils, nor to permit to approach the Divine Tables, neophites untimely
baptized and not in right time believing on Christ the Lord of all. For that He may be an
Ensample to us in this also, and may teach us whom fittingly to initiate, He receives
indeed the believers, but is seen not yet to have confidence in them, in that He does not
commit Himself to them: that hence it may be manifest, that it befits novices to spend no
small time under instruction; for scarce even so will they become faithful men. 25 Because
He knew all, and needed not that any should testify of man; for He knew what was in man.
Divine is this excellence too along with the rest which are in Christ, and in no one of
created beings is it. For to Him Alone Who is truly God doth the Psalmist ascribe it,
saying, He fashioneth their hearts alike, He considereth all their works. But if while God
Alone understandeth what is in us, Christ understandeth them: how shall He not be God by
Nature, Who knoweth the secrets, and knoweth the deep and secret things, as it is written?
For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Though
no man knoweth, God will not be ignorant, for neither is He reckoned in the number of all,
of whom "No man" may rightly be predicated, but as being external to all, and all things
under His Feet, He will know. And Paul too will testify, saying, For the word of God is
quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the
thoughts and intents of the heart: neither is there any creature that is not manifest in
His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the Eyes of Him. For as having planted
the ear, He hears all things, and as having formed the eye, He observeth. And indeed He is
introduced saying in Job, Who is this that hideth counsel from Me, holding words in his
heart, and thinketh to conceal them from Me? In order then that we might acknowledge that
the Son is by Nature God, needs does the Evangelist say that He needed not that any should
testify of man, for He knew what was in man.

Chap. iii, 2 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the
same came to Jesus by night and said unto Him, More ready is Nicodemus to believe, but
overcome by no good fear, and not despising the opinion of men, he refuses boldness, and
is divided in opinion into two, and halts in purpose, feeble upon both his knee joints, as
it is written, forced by the convictions of his conscience to the duty of believing by
reason of the exceedingness of the miracles, but esteeming the loss of rulership over his
own nation a thing not to be borne, for he was a ruler of the Jews. Deeming that he can
both preserve his repute with them, and be a disciple secretly, he cometh to Jesus, making
the darkness of the night an aider of his scheme, and by his secret coming convicted of
double mindedness.

3, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a Teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles
that Thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him In these words
he supposes that he can attain complete piety, and imagines that it will be sufficient for
his salvation, to marvel merely at those things which call for wonder: nought else but
this does he seek. Calling him a Teacher from God, and a co-worker with Him, he does not
yet know that He is by Nature God, nor understand the plan of the dispensation with Flesh,
but still approaches as to a mere man, and hath but slight conception of Him. 4 Verily
verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto Him, Faith consisteth not, O Nicodemus, in what thou thinkest. Speech
sufficeth not unto thee for righteousness, neither wilt thou achieve piety by mere words.
For not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven,
but he that doeth the will of My Father Which is in Heaven. But the will of the Father is,
that man be made partaker of the Holy Ghost, that the citizen of earth reborn unto an
unaccustomed and new life, be called a citizen of Heaven. When He calls the new birth of
the Spirit from above, He sheweth clearly that the Spirit is of the Essence of God the
Father, as indeed Himself too saith of Himself, I am from above. And the most wise
Evangelist again saith of Him, He that cometh from above is above all.

But that the Spirit is of the Essence of God the Father we shall speak more largely in its
proper place. 5 How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his
mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Nicodemus is convicted hereby of being still
carnal, and therefore no way receiving the things of the Spirit of God. For he thinketh
that this so dread and illustrious Mystery is foolishness. And hearing of the birth
spiritual and from above, he imagineth the carnal womb returning to birth-pang of things
already born, and, not attaining beyond the law of our nature, measureth things Divine;
and finding the height of its doctrines unattainable by his own conceptions, he falleth
down, and is carried off. For as things that are dashed by mighty blows upon the hard
stones again rebound, so too I deem the unskilled mind falling upon conceptions of greater
calibre than it, being relaxed returns, and ever glad to remain in the measure that suits
it, despises an understanding better and loftier than itself. In which case the ruler of
the Jews now being, receives not the spiritual birth.

Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
Since the man did not understand as he ought, what the need of being born from above
meant, He instructs him with plainer teaching, and sets before him the more open knowledge
of the Mystery. For our Lord Jesus Christ was calling the new birth through the Spirit
from above, shewing that the Spirit is of the Essence That is above all essences, through
Whom we become partakers of the Divine Nature, as enjoying Him Who proceeds from It
Essentially, and through Him and in Him re-formed to the Archetype-Beauty, and thus re-
born unto newness of life, and re-moulded to the Divine Sonship. But Nicodemus not so
understanding the word from above, imagined it was meant that the future birth should take
place afterthe manner of bodies: therefore also falling into imaginations which shut him
up in impossibility, he was caught alike senseless and hard of learning. Of necessity
therefore does the Saviour answer yet more mildly, as to one more infirm of habit, and
removing the veil that seemed to be thrown over His Words, He now says openly, Except a
man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. For
since man is compound, and not simple in his nature, being combined of two, to wit, the
sensible body and intellectual soul, he will require two-fold healing for his new birth
akin to both the fore-named. For by the Spirit is the spirit of man sanctified, by the
sanctified water again, his body. For as the water poured into the kettle, being
associated with the vigour of fire, receives in itself the impress of its efficacy, so
through the inworking of the Spirit the sensible water is trans-elemented to a Divine and
ineffable efficacy, and sanctifieth those on whom it comes.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
spirit. By another argument again He persuades him to mount up to a higher understanding,
and on hearing of spiritual birth, not to think of the properties of bodies. For as it is
altogether necessary, saith He, that the offspring of flesh should be flesh, so also is it
that those of the Spirit should be spirit. For in things the mode of whose being is
different, in these must surely the mode of generation also be not the same. But it is to
be known that we call the spirit of a man the offspring of the Spirit, not as being of It
by Nature (for that were impossible), but in the first place, and that in order of time,
because that through Him that which was not was called into being, and in the second place
and oeconomically, because of its being re-formed unto God through Him, He stamping His
Own Impress upon us, and trans-fashioning our understanding to His own Quality, so to
speak. For so I deem, you will understand aright that too which is said to some by Paul,
My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, and
again, For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel.

7, 8 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it
listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and
whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit. It is the excellence of a
teacher, to be able manifoldly to manage the mind of the hearers, and to go through many
considerations, heaping up proofs where the argument appears hard. He takes then the
figure of the mystery from examples, and says, This spirit belonging to the world and of
the air, blows throughout the whole earth, and running where it listeth, is shewn to be
present by sound only, and escapeth the eye of all, yet, communicating itself to bodies by
the subtlest breaths, it infuseth some perception of its natural efficacy. So do thou,
saith He, conceive of the new birth also through the Spirit, led on by little examples to
what is greater, and by the reasoning brought forward as it were in an image, conceiving
of what is above the senses.

9, 10 Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and
said unto him, Long discourse nothing profits him who understandeth not a whit. Wise then
is the saying in the book of Proverbs, Well is he that speaketh in the ears of them that
will hear. And this the Saviour shewed by trial to be true, giving Himself an ensample to
us in this too. For the teacher will be wholly free from the charge of not being able to
persuade, saying what himself thinks good, though he profit nothing by reason of the
dulness of the hearers. Besides we learn by this, that hardness in part is happened to
Israel. For hearing they hear and understand not. Art thou a master of Israel and knowest
not these things? By one Christ convicts all, that adorned with the name of teachers, and
clothed with the mere repute of being learned in the law, they bear a mind full of
ignorance, and unable to understand one of those things, which they ought not only to
know, but also to be able to teach others. But if he that instructeth be in this
condition, in what is he that is instructed, seeing that the disciple exceedeth not the
measure of his master, according to the word of the Saviour? For the disciple, saith He,
is not above his master. But since they were thus uninstructed, true is Christ in likening
them to whited sepulchres. Most excellently doth Paul too say to the ruler of the Jews,
God shall smite thee, thou whited wall.

11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know and testify that we have
seen. He finds the man careless of learning and exceedingly uninstructed and, by reason of
his great grossness of mind, utterly unable to be led unto the comprehension of Divine
doctrines, albeit many words had been expended with manifold examples. Whence letting
alone, as was fitting, accurate explanation, He at length advises him to accept in simple
faith, what he cannot understand. He testifies that Himself knows clearly what He saith,
by the illustriousness of His Person shewing that yet to gainsay is most dangerous. For it
was not likely that Nicodemus would forget, who had affirmed that he knew it of our
Saviour Christ, that He was a Teacher come from God. But to resist one who is from God and
God, how would it not be fraught with peril? for the thing is clearly a fighting with God.
But hence we ought to know, who have authority to teach, that for those just come to the
faith, faith in simple arguments is better than any deep reasoning, and more elaborate
explanation. And Paul also used to feed with milk some, not yet able to bear stronger
meats. And the most wise Solomon again somewhere says to us, Thou shalt wisely know the
souls of thy flock, meaning that we should not set before those who come to us the word of
doctrine indiscriminately, but fitly adapted to the measure of each.

And ye receive not our witness. As having in Himself the Father and the Spirit Naturally,
the Saviour set forth the person of the Witnesses in the plural number, that, as in the
law of Moses, by the mouth of two or three witnesses, what is said may be established. For
He shews that the Jews in no wise will to be saved, but with unbridled and heedless
impetus are they being borne unto the deep pit of perdition. For if they can neither from
their great unlearning understand what is proclaimed to them, nor yet receive it in faith,
what other means of salvation may be devised for them? Well then and very justly did the
Saviour say that Jerusalem would be without excuse, as snatching upon herself self-called
destruction. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, saith He, that killest the prophets and stonest them,
which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a
hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left
unto you.

12, 13 If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I
tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down
from heaven, the Son of man Which is in heaven. A doctrine, saith He, not exceeding the
understanding befitting man, ye from your extreme folly received not, and how shall I
explain to you things more Divine? For they who in their own matters are most foolish, how
shall they be wise in matters above them? And they who are powerless as to the less, how
shall they not find the greater intolerable? And if, says He, ye believe not Me being
Alone in speaking, but seek many witnesses for every thing, whom shall I bring to you as a
witness of the heavenly Mysteries? For no man hath ascended up to heaven but He That came
down from heaven the Son of man. For since the Word of God came down from heaven, He says
that the son of man came down, refusing after the Incarnation to be divided into two
persons, and not suffering certain to say that the Temple taken by reason of need of the
Virgin is one Son, the Word again which appeared from God the Father another: save only as
regards the distinction which belongs to each by nature. For as He is the Word of God, so
Man too of a woman, but One Christ of both, Undivided in regard of Sonship and God-
befitting Glory. For how does He clothe as its own the Temple of the Virgin, with what
befitteth the bare Word Alone: and again appropriateth to Himself what befitteth the Flesh
only? For now He saith that the Son of man hath come down from heaven: but at the time of
His Passion, He feareth, and is sore afraid, and very heavy, and is recorded as Himself
suffering the Sufferings which befitted His Human Nature only.

14, 15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man
be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life.
Having explained sufficiently, and set before him the reason, why His Word of teaching
does not run forth into the boundless and supernatural, but descends again to those things
that were typically done by Moses of old, knowing that he could by leadings by means of
figures scarce arrive at knowledge of the truth, rather than by the exactitude of
spiritual inspirations, He saith He must surely be lifted up, as the serpent was by Moses,
shewing that search of history is most necessary, and all but saying to this man of no
understanding, Search the Scriptures, for they are they which testify of Me. For serpents
were springing upon them of Israel in the wilderness, and they, falling like ears of corn,
and not a little distressed at this danger unexpectedly visiting them, with most piteous
cry called for salvation from above and from God. But He, since He was Good and full of
compassion, as God, commands Moses to set up a brazen serpent; and commands them therein
to have a forethoughtof the salvation by faith. For the remedy to one bitten, was to look
at the serpent put before him, and faith along with the sight wrought deliverance at the
last extremity to the beholders. So much for the history. But it represents in act as it
were in a type, the whole Mystery of the Incarnation.

For the serpent signifies bitter and manslaying sin, which was devouring the whole race
upon the earth, manifoldly biting the soul of man, and infusing the varied poison of
wickedness. And no otherwise could we escape it thus conquering us, save by the succour
alone which is from heaven. The Word of God then was made in the likeness oj sinful flesh,
that He might condemn sin in the flesh, as it is written, and to those who gaze on Him
with more steadfast faith, or by search into the Divine doctrines, might become the Giver
of unending salvation. But the serpent being fixed upon a lofty base, signifies that
Christ was altogether clear and manifest, so as to be unknown to none, or His being lifted
up from the earth, as Himself says, by His Passion on the Cross. 16 For God so loved the
world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever helieveth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life. He desireth to shew openly herein, that He is God by
Nature, since one must needs deem that He Who came forth from God the Father, is surely
God also, not having the honour from without, as we have, but being in truth what He is
believed to be. With exceeding skill does He say this, having joined therewith the love of
God the Father to us, well and opportunely coming to discourse thereon. For He shames the
unbelieving Nicodemus, yea rather, He shews that he is ungodly also. For the not coming
readily to believe, when God teaches anything, what else is it, than laying upon the Truth
a charge of falsehood? Besides this, in saying that He was given for the life of the
world, He persuades him to consider seriously, of how great punishment they will be in
danger, who from their mad folly, have made of no account so wondrous grace of God the
Father. For God, says He, so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son.

Let the Christ-opposing heretic again hear, and let him come forward and say, what is the
greatness of the Love of God the Father, or how we should reasonably marvel at it. But he
will say that the marvel of the love is seen, in His giving His Son for us, and that the
Only Begotten. In order then that the great love of God the Father may remain and be
preserved, let Him be held to be Son not a creature, I mean Son of the Essence of the
Father, that is to say, Consubstantial with Him Who begat Him, and God verily and in
truth. But if, according to thy speech, o thou, He possesseth not the being of the Essence
of God the Father, He will also lose the being by Nature Son and God, and the wide-spread
marvel of the Love of God will at length come to nought: for He gave a creature for
creatures, and not truly His Son. Vainly too will the blessed Paul trouble us, saying, He
that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much
sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the
Son of God? For confessedly he that despised trampleth under foot, but not the Very Son,
but a fellow servant of Moses, if indeed creature be always akin to creature, in respect
at least of having been made, even if it surpass the glory of another, in the excellences
of being greater or better. But the word of Paul is true; and a severer penalty shall he
pay who hath trodden under foot the Son, not as though he were transgressing against a
creature, or one of the fellow servants of Moses. Great then and above nature is the Love
of the Father, Who for the life of the world gave His Own Son and Who is of Himself.

17 For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through Him might be saved. Having plainly called Himself the Son of God the Father, He
thought not good to leave the word without witness, but brings forward proof from the
quality, so to say, of the things themselves, making the hearers more steadfast unto
faith. For I was not sent, saith He, like the law-expounder Moses, condemning the world by
the law, nor introducing the commandment unto conviction of sin, nor do I perform a
servile ministry, but I introduce loving-kindness befitting the Master: I free the
embondaged, as Son and Heir of the Father, I transform the law that condemneth into grace
that justifieth, I release from sin him that is holden with the cords of his
transgressions, I am come to save the world, not to condemn it. For it was right, it was
right, saith He, that Moses, as a servant, should be a minister of the law that condemns,
but that I as Son and God should free the whole world from the curse of the law and, by
exceedingness of lovingkindness, should heal the infirmity of the world. If then the grace
that justifieth is better than the commandment that condemneth, how is it not meet to
conceive that He surpasseth the measure of the servant Who introduceth so God-befitting
authority, and releaseth man from the bonds of sin?

This then is one aim of the passage under consideration, and no mean one. A second besides
this, revolving through the same circuit, and introducing a consideration akin to those
above, will be given from love of learning. The Saviour saw that Nicodemus was cleaving to
the law of Moses, and was fast held to the more ancient commandment, and was somehow
startled at the new Birth through the Spirit, shrinking from the new and Gospel polity,
supposing it seems that this would be more burdensome than the things already enjoined.
Being therefore not ignorant, as God, of the fear which from his ignorance had sprung upon
him, by using one short argument, He frees him from all trouble on this score, and shews
that the commandment of Moses, by reason of its condemning the world, is harder to be
borne, and introduces Himself as a mild Judge, saying, For God sent not His Son into the
world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on the Son is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the Only Begotten Son of God. Having
proved by facts, that He is both Son of God the Father, and introduceth into the world
grace which is more excellent than the ministration of Moses (for how is not the being
justified by grace better than the being condemned by the law?), He devised, as God,
another way to bring unto the faith, from all quarters driving together to salvation them
that were lost. He puts forth then to the believer as his reward the not being called to
judgement, to the unbeliever punishment, bringing into one and the same way by both,
calling to come readily unto the faith, some by desire for the grace, others by fear of
suffering. He shews that heinous and great is the crime of unbelief, since He is Son and
Only Begotten. For by how much is that worthy of belief which is insulted, so much the
more will that which despises be condemned for his dire transgression. He says that he
that believeth not is condemned already, in that he hath already determined against
himself the due sentence of punishment, by knowingly rejecting Him Who gives not to be
condemned.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness
rather than light. He lets not the condemnation of the unbelievers remain without
consideration, but recounts its causes, and shews clearly that, according to the words of
the Proverbs, Not unjustly is the net spread for the birds. For they, saith He, who when
it was in their power to be illuminated preferred to remain in darkness, how will not they
fairly be determiners of punishment against themselves, and self-invited to suffering
which it was in their power to escape, if they had been right provers of things, choosing
rather to be enlightened than not, and studying to make the baser things second to the
better? But He preserved the mind of man free from the bonds of necessity, and tending by
its own impulses to both sides, that it might justly receive praise for good things, and
punishment for the contrary. As indeed He sheweth in another place, saying, If ye be
willing and obedient, ye shall, eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye
shall be devoured with the sword.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his
deeds should be reproved. Profitably doth He go over what has been said, and convicts
indolence unto things helpful of proceeding from love of evil, and of having its root in
unwillingness to learn those things whereby one may become wise and good. For the doer of
evil, says He, flees from and refuses the being in the Divine Light: not hiding from shame
on account of evil (for so he would have been saved) but desiring to remain in ignorance
of what is becoming, lest transgressing he should be smitten, falling upon the now keener
convictions of his own conscience, and by means of at length clearly knowing what is good,
should pay a more woeful account to the Judge, if he should not do what was pleasing to
God. But he that doeth truth (that is, the lover and doer of the works of the Truth)
cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. For
he doth not reject the illumination in the Spirit, by It specially led to be able to
understand in all calm collectedness, whether he hath transgressed the Divine commandment,
and whether he hath wrought all things according to the Law of God.

It is then a plain proof of an unbridled tendency to evil, and unrestrained pleasure in
what is worse, not to wish to learn that whereby one may avail to attain unto what is
better: again of desire for the best, to thirst for illumination, and to make His Law a
rule so to say and index unto a conversation pleasing to God. And the Divine Psalmist
knowing that this was so, sings, The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul: the
testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. 22, 23,
24 After these things came Jesus and His disciples into the land of Judaea. And John also
was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there; and they came,
and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into prison.

After the conversation with Nicodemus had now reached its conclusion, the Divine
Evangelist again prepares something else most profitable. For enlightened by the Divine
Spirit to the exposition of things most needful, he knew that it would exceedingly profit
his readers to know clearly, how great the excellence, and by how great measures, the
baptism of Christ surpasses that of John. For it was indeed not far from his expectation,
that certain would arise who of their folly should dare to say, either that there was no
difference whatever between them, but that they ought to be crowned with equal honours;
or, having stumbled into folly even wilder than this, say, that the vote of superiority
ought to be taken away from Christ's baptism, and the superiority shamelessly lavished on
the baptism by water. For what daring is not attainable by the ill-instructed, or through
what blasphemy do they not rush, who rising up against the holy doctrines of the Church,
pervert all equity, as it is written? The most wise Evangelist then, that he might destroy
beforehand the plea for their vain-babbling, introduces the holy Baptist laying before his
disciples the solution of the question. Christ therefore baptizes through His own
disciples: likewise John too, and not altogether by the hands of others, nor yet did he
baptize in those same fountains, where Christ was manifested doing this, but near to
Salim, as it is written, and in one of the neighbouring fountains.

And through the very distinction (in a way) of the fountains of waters does he shew the
difference of the baptism, and signify as in a figure that his baptism is not the same as
that of our Saviour Christ: yet was it near and round about, bringing in a kind of
preparation and introduction to the more perfect one. As then the law of Moses too is said
to have a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things (for the
Mosaic letter is a kind of preparatory exercise and pre-instruction for the worship in the
Spirit, travailing with the truth hidden within), so shalt thou conceive too of the
baptism unto repentance. 25, 26 Then there arose a question between some of John's
disciples and a Jew 7 about purifying. And they came unto John, and said unto him, The
Jews being powerless to commend the purifications of the law, and not able to advocate the
cleansing through the ashes of an heifer, plan something against John's disciples, whereby
they thought to cause them no slight vexation, albeit easily worsted in their own matters.
For since they who attended the blessed Baptist, appeared to be more excellent and of more
understanding than the Pharisees, admiring the baptism of their own teacher, and opposing
the purifications after the law; they are vexed at these things, who are diligent in
reviling only and most ready unto all wickedness: and even overturning their own case,
they praise Christ's Baptism, not rightly disposed, nor pouring forth true praise on it,
but exasperated to the mere distressing of them; and lending out a statement against their
opinion, until their purpose should attain its accomplishment. They cannot then adduce any
reasonable proof, nor do they even support Christ out of the holy Scriptures (for, whence
were such understanding to the uninstructed?): but they merely allege in confirmation of
their own arguments, that very few in number are those who come to John, but that they
flock together to Christ. For haply they in their exceeding folly thought that they should
carry off the vote of victory, and might speak out in behalf of the legal purifications,
as having already conquered, by giving the palm over John's to the Baptism bestowed by
Christ on those who come to Him. And they vex those with whom their dispute was: but they
get off with difficulty and leave the disciples of John, much more beaten by their ill-
considered dispute. For they crown with compulsory praises, and against their will, the
Lord.

27 Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to Whom thou barest witness, behold, the
Same baptizeth, and all men come to Him. John answered and said, The disciples bitten by
the words of the Pharisees, and looking to the very nature of the thing, were not able to
convict them as liars, but were reasonably at a loss, and being ignorant of the great
dignity of our Saviour, are exceedingly startled at John's shortcoming, and mingling words
of love with reverence and admiration, they desire to learn, why He That was borne witness
to by his voice, prevents him in honour, outstrips him in grace, and in baptizing takes in
His net, not a portion of the whole Jewish multitude, but even all of them. And they made
the inquiry as it seems not without the Will of God: for hence the Baptist invites them to
an accurate and long explanation respecting the Saviour, and introduces the clearest
distinction between the baptisms.

A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven. He says that there is
nothing good in man, but must needs be wholly the gift of God, For it befits the creation
to hear, What hast thou that thou didst not receive? I think then that we ought to be
content with the measures allotted to us, and to rejoice in the honours apportioned to us
from heaven, but by no means to stretch out beyond, nor in desire ever of what is greater
unthankfully to despise the decree from above, and fight against the judgment of the Lord,
in shame that one should appear to receive what is less than the more perfect: but with
whatsoever God shall please to honour us, to value that highly. Let not my disciple
therefore, saith he, be ashamed, if I do not overleap the measure given me, if I do not
contemplate the greater, and am contracted to the glory befitting a man.

28 Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent
before Him. He brings his disciples to the recollection of the words which they have
already often heard, partly reproving them rightly, as steeped in forgetfulness of things
profitable, and slumbering in respect to this so most dread doctrine, partly persuading
them to remember the Divine Scripture, ashaving been nourished in zeal for the knowledge
of these things; Whom it preaches as the Christ to come, whom again as the Baptist the
forerunner. For thus would they, having received knowledge of each, be in no wise angry,
seeing them in the state befitting each. I shall need then, saith he, no other witnesses
to this, I have my own disciples as ear-witnesses, I confessed my state of servitude, when
I fore-announced, I was sent, I am not the Christ. Let Him overcome, prevail, shine forth
yet more as Lord and God.

29 He That hath the bride is the Bridegroom: but the friend of the Bridegroom, which
standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the Bridegroom's voice; this my joy
therefore is fulfilled. The discourse again took its rise from likeness to our affairs,
but leads us to the knowledge of subtle thoughts. For types of things spiritual are those
which endure the touch of the hand, and the grossness of corporeal examples introduceth
oftentimes a most accurate proof of things spiritual. Christ then, says he, is the
Bridegroom and ruler of the assembly, I the bidder to the supper and conducter of the
bride, having as my chiefest joy and illustrious dignity, to be only enrolled among His
friends, and to hear the Voice of Him That feasteth. I have therefore even now that that I
long for, and my dearest wish is fulfilled. For not only did I preach that Christ would
come, but Him already present have I seen, and His very Voice do I lay up in my ears. But
ye, most wise disciples, seeing the human nature that is betrothed to Christ, going to
Him, and beholding the nature which was cut off and a run-away from its love to Him
attaining to spiritual union through holy Baptism, grieve not, saith he, that it befits
not me, but rather runs very gladly to the spiritual Bridegroom (for this were in truth
just and more fitting). For He That hath the bride is the Bridegroom; that is, seek not in
me the crown of the Bridegroom, not for me does the Psalmist rejoice, saying, Hearken, O
daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people and thy
father's house, for the King hath desired thy beauty: nor seeking my chamber doth the
bride say, Tell me, O Thou Whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest, where Thou makest Thy
flock to rest at noon: she has the Bridegroom from Heaven. But I will rejoice, having
surpassed the honour becoming a bondman, in the title and reality of friendship.

I deem then that the meaning of the passage, has been full well interpreted: and having
already sufficiently explained the spiritual marriage, I think it tedious to write any
more about it. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease. He convicts his disciples of
being yet troubled about trifles, and of taking unseasonable offence at what they by no
means ought, and of not yet knowing accurately, Who and whence Emmanuel is. For not thus
far, saith he, shall His Deeds be marvelled at, nor because more are baptized by Him,
shall He for this alone surpass my honour, but He shall attain to so great a measure of
honour, as befitteth God. For He must needs come to increase of glory, and, through daily
additions of miracles, ever mount up to the greater, and shine forth with greater
splendour to the world: but I must decrease, abiding in that measure wherein I appear, not
sinking from what was once given me, but in such a degree inferior to Him That advanceth
ever to an increase of glory, as He hasteth and passeth on.

And this the blessed Baptist interpreteth to us. But our discourse will advance profitably
through examples, making the force of what has been said clearer. Let then a stake two
cubits long be fixed in the ground: let there lie near a plant too, just peeping above the
ground, putting forth green shoots into the air, and ever thrust up to a greater height by
the resistless vigour from the roots; if then one could put voice into the stake, and it
should then say of itself and its neighbour the plant, This must increase, but I decrease;
one would not reasonably suppose that it indicated any harm to itself, nor that its
existing measure would be clipped, but it would be affirming its decrease in that sort
only, in which it is found less than that which is ever advancing towards increase. Again
you may take an example akin to this one, and suppose the brightest of the stars to cry
out saying of the sun, It must increase, but I decrease. For while in the gloom of night
the depth of the atmosphere is darkened, one may well admire the morning star flashing
forth its golden light, and conspicuous in its full glory: but when the sun now gives
notice of its rising, and bedews the world with a moderate light, the star is surpassed by
the greater, and gives place to him advancing little by little. And it too might well
speak the words of John, being in that same state, which he says he is enduring.

Chapter II. That the Son is not in the number of things originate, but above all, as God
of God.

31 He That cometh from above is above all. No great thing is it, saith he, nor exceeding
wonderful, if Christ surpass the glory of human nature: for not thus far doth He set the
bounds of His own glory, but is over all creation, as God, is above all things made, not
as numbered among all, but as excepted from all, and Divinely set over all. He adds the
reason, shaming the gainsayer, and silencing the opposer. He That cometh from above, saith
he, that is, He That is born of the root from above, preserving in Himself by Nature the
Father's Natural goodness, will confessedly possess the being above all. For it would be
impossible that the Son should not altogether appear to be such as He That begat is
conceived of, and rightly. For the Son Who excelleth in sameness of Nature, the Brightness
and express Image of the Father, how will He be inferior to Him in glory? Or will not the
Property of the Father be dishonoured in the Son, and we insult the Image of the Begotten,
if we count Him inferior? But this I suppose will be manifest to all. Therefore is it
written also, That all men, should honour the Son even as they honour the Father: he that
honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father. He That glorieth in equal honour with God
the Father, by reason of being of Him by Nature, how will He not be conceived of as
surpassing the essence of things originate? for this is the meaning of is above all.

But I perceive that the mind of the fighters against Christ will never rest, but they will
come, as is probable, vainly babbling and say, "When the blessed Baptist says that the
Lord sprang from above, what reason will compel us to suppose that He came of the Essence
of the Father, by reason of the word from above, and not rather from heaven, or even from
His inherent superiority above all, so that for this reason He should be conceived of and
said to be also above all? When therefore they aim at us with such words, they shall hear
in return, Not your most corrupt reasonings o most excellent, will we follow, but rather
the Divine Scriptures and the Sacred Writings only. We must then search in them, how they
define to us the force of from above. Let them hear then a certain one of the Spirit-clad
crying, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from, above, and cometh down from the
Father of lights. Lo, plainly he says that from above is from the Father: for knowing that
nought else surpasseth things originate save the Ineffable Nature of God, he rightly
attached to it the term from above. For all things else fall under the yoke of bondage;
God alone riseth above being ruled, and reigneth: whence He is truly above all. But the
Son, being by Nature God and of God, will not be excluded from the glory in respect of
this.

But if ye deem that from above ought to be taken as Of heaven, let the word be used of
every angel and rational power. For they come to us from heaven who inhabit the city that
is above, and ascend and descend, as the Saviour somewhere says, upon the Son of man. What
then persuaded the blessed Baptist to attribute that which was in the power of many to the
Son Alone specially, and as to One coming down from above to call Him, He That cometh from
above? For surely he ought to make the dignity common to the rest, and say, They that come
from above are above all. But he knew that the expression was due to the One Son, as
sprung of the Supreme Root. Therefore from above does not mean from heaven: but will be
piously and truly understood, in the sense we spoke of before. For how is He at all above
all, if from above signify not From the Father, but rather From Heaven? For if this be so,
every one of the angels too will be above all, as coming from thence. But if each one
escapes being reckoned among all, of whom at last will all be composed? or how will the
word all remain intact, preserving accurately its meaning, while such a multitude of
angels overpass and break down the boundary of all? For all it is no longer, if they
remain outside, who were in all. But the Word That shone forth ineffably from God the
Father, having His Proper Birth from above, and being of the Essence of the Father as of a
fountain, will not by His coming wrong the word all, seeing He escapes being reckoned
among all as if a part: but rather will be above all, as Other than they, both by Nature
and God-befitting Power and all other Properties of Him Who begat Him.

But perchance they will say abashed at the absurd result of the investigation, "From above
means not from heaven, but from His inherent superiority above all. Come then, testing
more accurately the force of what is said, let us see at what an end their attempt will
terminate. First then, it is wholly foolish and without understanding, to say that the Son
Himself hath come from His Own Dignity, and that as from a certain place or out of one, He
One and the Same advances from His Own Excellency to be above all. In addition to this, I
would also most gladly enquire of them, in respect of the excellence above all, whether
they will grant it to the Son Essentially and irrevocably, or added from without in the
nature of accident. If then they say that He hath the Excellence by acquisition, and is
honoured with dignities from without, one must needs acknowledge that the Only-Begotten
could exist deprived of glory, and be stripped of the acquired (as they call it) grace,
and be deprived of being above all, and appear bare of the excellence which they now
admire, since an accident may be lost, seeing that it belongeth not to the essence of its
subject. There will therefore be change and varying in the Son: and the Psalmist will lie
hymning Him with vain words, The heavens shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: yea all of
them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt Thou change them and they shall be
changed:

but Thou art the Same, and Thy years shall have no end. For how is He the Same, if with us
He changeth, and that with changes for the worse? Vainly too (it seems) doth He glory of
Himself, saying, Behold, behold, I am, I change not, and there is no God beside Me. And
how will not the passions of the offspring reach up to the Father Himself too, since He is
His Impress and Exact Likeness? God the Father then will be changeable, and has the
Supremacy over all accruing to Him: I omit the rest. For what belongs to the Image will of
necessity appertain unto the Archetype. But they will not say that He hath the supremacy
from without (shuddering at such difficulties alike and absurdities of their arguments),
but Essential rather and irrevocable. Then again (o most excellent) how will ye not agree
with us even against your will, that the Son being by Nature God, is above all, and
therefore cometh of the Alone Essence of God the Father? For if there be nought of things
originate which is not parted off by the force of the All, but the Son is above all, to
wit, as Other than all, and having the Essential Supremacy over all, and not the same in
nature with all, how will He not be at length conceived of as Very God?

For He Who is Essentially separate from the multitude of created beings, and by Nature
escapes the being classed among things originate, what else can He be, save God? For we
see no mean, as far as regards existing essence. For the creation is ruled over, and God
is conceived of as over it. If then the Son be by Nature God, and have been ineffably
begotten of God the Father, from above signifies the Nature of the Father. Therefore the
Only Begotten is above all, inasmuch as He too is seen to be of that Nature. He that is of
the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth. The earthborn (says he) will not effect
equally in power of persuasion with Him Who is God over all. For he that is of the earth
will speak as man, and will rank merely as an adviser, committing to his disciples the
whole reins of desire to believe: but He That cometh from above, as God, having used
discourse with a certain Divine and ineffable grace, sends it into the ears of those who
come to Him. But in proportion as He is by Nature Superior, so much the more effectually
will He surely in-work. And with much profit does the blessed Baptist say such things to
his disciples. For since they were beholding him surpassed by the glory of the Saviour,
and were now not a little offended thereat, wherefore they came to him and said, Rabbi, He
That was with thee beyond Jordan, to Whom thou barest witness, behold the Same baptizeth,
and all men come to Him; needs did the Spirit-clad, cutting off the sickness of offence,
and implanting in his disciples a healthful perception on most necessary points, explain
the Saviour's supremacy over all, and teach no less the cause why all men were already
going to Him, and leaving the baptism by water alone, went to the more Divine and perfect
one, to wit, that by the Holy Ghost.

He that cometh from heaven is above all. This testifieth (saith he) that very great and
incomparable the distinction between those of the earth and the Word of God That cometh
down from above and from Heaven. If I am not fit to teach, and my word alone suffice you
not, the Son Himself will confirm it, testifying that in an incomprehensible degree
differs the earth-born from the Beginning Which is above all. For disputing somewhere with
the unholy Jews, the Saviour said, Ye are from beneath; I am from above. For He says that
the nature of things originate is from beneath, as subject and of necessity in bondservice
to God Who calleth them into being: from above again He calleth the Divine and Ineffable
and Lordly Nature, as having all things originate under Its feet, and subjecting them to
the yoke of His Authority. For not idly did the blessed Baptist add these things to, those
above. For that; he may not be supposed by his disciples to be inventing empty arguments,
and from fear of seeming with reason inferior to Christ, to call Him greater and from
above, himself from beneath and of the earth; needs does he from what the Saviour Himself
said, seal the force of the things said, and shew the explanation to be not as they
thought, an empty excuse, but rather a demonstration of the truth.

But since the other part of the verse runs thus, And what He hath seen and heard, that He
testifieth, come we will discuss a few things on this too. We are so constituted and
habituated, as to receive the full proof of everything, by means of two especial senses
particularly, I mean sight and hearing. For having been both ear-witnesses and eye-
witnesses of anything, we come to speak positively thereof. Persuading them therefore to
hasten to belief in Christ (for He speaks, says he, that He knows accurately), he takes
again, as it were, from the likeness to us, that we may understand it more Divinely, and
says, What He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth. And no man receiveth His testimony.
Not as though no one receiveth the testimony, that Christ is God by Nature and, sprung
from above and the Father, is above all, does the blessed Baptist say this (for many
received, and have believed it, and before all Peter, saying, Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the Living God): but as having himself conceived of the great dignity of the Speaker
more rightly than they all, does he all but shaking his head, and smiting with right hand
on his thigh, marvel at the folly of them that disbelieve Him.

Chapter III. That Christ is God and of God by Nature.

33 He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. In no other
way was it possible to shew the impiety of them that believe not, except the glorious
achievement of the believers were made known. For by the contrast of good things is the
evil easily discerned, and the knowledge of what is better convicts the worse. If any then
(saith he) have assented to the words of Him That cometh from above, he hath sealed and
confirmed by his understanding, that truth is ever akin and most dear to the Divine
Nature. Whence the converse is manifest to them that see. For he who thrusts away the
faith will surely witness against himself, that God is not true. But we must again take
notice, that he removes the Son from consubstantiality with the creation, and shews by
what has been said that He is by Nature God. For if he that believeth the things spoken by
Him, and receiveth the testimony which He gave of Himself, sealed and well confirmed that
God is true; how shall not Christ be conceived of as by Nature God, Who is testified of as
true by the credit of the things just said? or let our opponent again say how the Divine
Nature is honoured, as being true, by our Saviour's testimony being received. For if He be
not wholly by Nature God, he that believeth will not be reverencing the Divine Nature, as
true, but rather one (according to them) the fairest of creatures. But since, when Christ
is believed, the declaration of being true extendeth to God, it is I suppose altogether
clear, that He being God, not falsely so called, Himself taketh honour to Himself from
those who believe.

But the enemy of the truth will not (it seems) agree to these words of ours, but will
start up strong, not admitting the Son to be by Nature God: and will say again, Thou
cavillest, sir, and contrivest turns of many-varied reasonings, ever rejecting somehow the
simple and right sense. For since the Word of God hath come down from Heaven, calling out
openly, I speak not of Myself, but the Father Which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment,
what I should say and what I should speak: and again, All things that I have heard of My
Father, I will make known unto you: or also, as the holy Baptist averred in the following
words, For He Whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: therefore of Him is he saying,
He that receiveth His testimony hath set to his seal, that God is True. For verily is God
the Father true, but thou attemptest to bring round to the Son what is due to Another.

What then shall we say to these things? shall we class the Only-Begotten among the
prophets, fulfilling the ministry befitting Prophets, and doing nought besides? For by
whom is it not unhesitatingly received, that Prophets used to bring us voices from God?
Then what excellence is there in the Son, if He accomplish this alone? how is He above
all, if He is still ranked along with Prophets, and is clad in slave-befitting measure?
How, as though surpassing them in glory doth He say in the Gospels, If He called them gods
unto whom the Word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken, say ye of Him Whom the
Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest: because I said, I am the
Son of God? For in these words He clearly severeth Himself off from the company of
Prophets, and saith that they were called gods, because the Word of God came to them, but
Himself He con-fesseth Son. For to the holy Prophets was imparted grace by measure through
the Spirit; but in our Saviour Christ it hath pleased all the full ness of the God-head to
dwell bodily, as Paul saith; wherefore also of His fullness have all we received, as John
affirmed. How then will the Giver be On a par with the recipients, or how will the
Fullness of the God-head be reckoned in the portion of the minister?

Let them then hence consider narrowly, into how great blasphemy their argument will hazard
them. And how one ought to understand the words, I speak not of Myself, but the Father
Which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak, will be
explained more at large in its proper time and place. But I think that at present the
objections of our opponents ought to be made a foundation of piety, and from what they put
forth, we ought to contend for the doctrines of the Church. They then affirm that the Son
has received commandments from the Father, and says nothing of Himself: but whatsoever He
heard, as Himself says, these things He is zealous to say to us too. Well, let him hold to
this; for we will agree, since this nothing wrongeth the Son, as far at least as concerns
the question of whence He is; yea rather it bringeth in a most beautiful ceconomy in
respect of the present subject. Therefore when they hear Him say, I and the Father are
One; He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; I am in the Father, and the Father in Me:
let them receive His testimony, let them set to their seal, that God the Father is true,
persuading the Son to speak what He knoweth accurately; let them not disbelieve the words
of the Saviour, interpreting to us the things of His Father.

34 For He Whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. The Father then knoweth that His
own Son is in Him the Same by Nature (for this I suppose the words, are One, signify, and
nothing else), and acknowledgeth Him as Son not creature; Son I mean of His own Essence,
and not honoured with the bare name of Sonship. For He knows that He is the Exact Image of
His own Proper Self, so that He is perfectly seen in Him, and depicts in Himself Him That
by Nature Ineffably beamed forth from Him, and hath in Himself the Son, is again in the
Son, by reason of Sameness of Essence. These things, o heretic, by considering, thou shalt
release thyself from bitter disease, and us from trouble in argument and controversy. For
He Whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. If these words be considered simply, what
will there be of marvel in the Son? For was not every one of the holy Prophets also both
sent from God, and did he not declare His words? And indeed it is somewhere said to the
hierophant Moses, And now come, I will send thee into Egypt, and thou shalt say unto
Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord: to the most holy Jeremiah, Say not, I am a child: for thou
shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
What more then is there in the Son by Nature Who speaketh the words of God, because He is
sent by Him? He will be declared to us again (it seems) as a Prophet, and nothing else, in
respect of ministry. Therefore you will here understand hath sent, either in respect of
the Incarnation and the Coming into this world with Flesh: or again you will take it in a
more God-befitting and higher sense. For the Father hid not the Son in Himself, but He
beamed forth of His Nature, as brightness from light, after the unspeakable and
inexplicable mode of Divine Generation: which too the Only-Begotten was making known to
us, in saying, I came forth from the Father, and am come.

For the Son hath come forth from the Father into His Proper Being, even though He be in
Him by Nature. And what I came forth there means, this again the being sent here
signifies. The Word then (he says) That hath appeared and flashed forth from the Father,
in that He is God of God, will use words befitting God: but the words befitting God are
true words, and such as reject all stain of falsehood. He then that receiveth the
testimony of the Saviour hath sealed that God is true; for He is indeed by Nature God. For
He giveth not the Spirit by measure. Promise now specially keen attention, my good friend,
that with me you may wonder at the sober wisdom of the Saints. He said therefore that the
Son was both sent of God, and speaketh the words of God. But he is observed as far as
belongs to the simple force of the words to clothe Him with the prophetic measure, as we
have just said. He: removes Him then in these words from equality with them, and through
this one token gives us to understand, how great, yea, rather now how incomparable the
difference. For it is impossible, saith he, that they who have received the Spirit by
measure, could give It to another. For never hath saint to saint been the bestower of the
Holy Ghost: but the Son giveth to all, as of His own fulness. He then giveth not by
measure, nor hath He, as they, some little portion of the Spirit, and this by
participation: but since He was shewn to be the Giver too of It, it is manifest I suppose
that He hath It wholly Essentially in Himself. He then that hath so great superiority over
them, will not speak the. things of God as one of them, but being God of God, will pour
forth words befitting God.

But it will no how interfere with what has been said that certain deem that by Apostolic
hands the Spirit was given to some: for we will believe them to be invokers of the Spirit,
rather than truly givers of It: since the blessed Moses too was not enjoined himself to
take of the Spirit that was on him but God kept this too in His Power alone, saying that
he must put forth the seventy, and promising to take of the Spirit that was on him, and
put it upon them. For He knew that it befits God Alone to perform things God-befitting.

Chapter IV. That not by participation are the Properties of God the Father in the Son, but
Essentially and by Nature.

35 The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His Hand. For since he had
said, that it behoved not the Son Who had beamed forth God of God, to be able to use words
other than He That begat Him, to wit, true words; for He Whom God hath sent, saith he,
speaketh the words of God, needs does he subjoin what is before us, and saith, The Father
loveth the Son. We shall not grieve (saith he) God the Father by clothing in equal honour
Him That is begotten of Him, we shall not offend Him by crowning with God-befitting Glory
Him Who is Essentially the Heir of the Father's goods. For He loveth the Son. He will
therefore be pleased at His being glorified by us, and be grieved by the contrary. And let
no one suppose, saith he, that He hath His Own Son Heir of this one Divine Excellence
only. For He hath given all things into His Hand; i. e., everything, which is essentially
good in the Father, this is altogether in the power of the Son. For he calleth power Hand
in these words, as when God saith by one of the Prophets, My right Hand hath spanned the
heavens, instead of, My Power.

But the Son hath in Himself the whole Property of the Father, not by participation, though
the Father be said to have given it (for so He would have an acquired, not a Natural
Godhead) but the Father gives all that is His to His Son, just as a man too may be
conceived to give to the child born of him all the properties of manhood, or as the fire
too may be said to give to the heat proceeding from it in the way of energy, the property
of its own nature. In such things, both is the giving no loss to the givers (for not by
division or severance is the going forth of what is conceived to be given) and the
appearance of receiving is blameless on the part of the recipients. For only because of
the 'whence,' are such things said, and the offspring are conceived of as being a certain
natural quality, so to say, of their begetters, shewing clearly what the generator is by
nature, and flashing forth the natural energy of their own source. And these things again
are adduced by way of examples, but God is above them all. We will not for this accuse
human language which is weak, for the glory of God hideth speech, as it is written. And if
we see through a glass and darkly, and conceive in part, how shall we not be yet more
powerless in the words through the tongue?

You will then piously conceive, either that in this way all things are given by the Father
to the Son: or you will take it again of the oeconomy with Flesh, no longer introducing
the giving and receiving in respect of Natural Properties, but as putting the Son in
authority over all things originate, that you may conceive of it in some such way as this,
The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His Hand. Let not the slow to
hearken (he says) be bold in speech, at seeing the Lord of all a Man, nor let him suppose
that the Truth is false, rejecting the due belief in God by reason of the Flesh. Let him
receive His testimony, let him readily set to his seal that God is true, lest he grieve
the Father Which is in Heaven. For He loveth His Son: and the proof of His Love for Him,
is that authority over all is given to Him. Which also the Saviour Himself says, All
things are delivered unto Me of My Father, and again, All power is given unto Me in heaven
and in earth. Nor do I suppose that because of the Son's seeming to receive it, will He
reasonably be predicated by any as lesser: and why? for He receives when He became Man,
when He humbled Himself for our sakes, when the Lord was called a slave, when the Son, Who
is free, became among servants. For how did He humble Himself? or how is He said to have
descended from His Equality with God the Father? Dost thou not in these things see Him Who
Divinely giveth, Him Who Humanly and as a servant is said to receive what as God He had?
For not strictly a gift from the Father is that which appointed the Son to the beginning
of Lordship over all things; but rather a return and regain with the Flesh also of the
authority that He had before the Flesh. For not when He became Man, did He then begin to
rule the creation.

Since to what lowliness would one say that He had descended, if, when He became Man, He
then began to have lordship? how will He appear in the Form of a servant, if then at
length and scarcely declared Lord of all? Away with the absurdity of the reasonings
herein. But when He became Man, then even so begins He to rule, not losing by reason of
His Flesh the Divine Dignity, but mounting again with the Flesh also, to what He was from
the beginning. But that the things spoken of as Christ's, were but the regain of what He
had before, Himself will prove, saying, Father, glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had
with Thee before the world was. Seest thou that He asketh not for a beginning of glory,
but a renewal of the pristine glory, saying this too as Man? But that because of the Human
Nature is it said that all things are given to the Son, he that is fond of learning will
from all quarters heap up proofs with wisdom, and will be able to understand, but
specially from that most dread vision of Daniel, wherein he savs that he saw the Ancient
of Days set on His Throne, and declares that thousand thousands ministered unto Him and
ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him.

And hereto he added, And behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven,
and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him, and there was given
Him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve
Him. Thou seest how here is the whole Mystery of the Incarnation accurately delineated to
us; thou seest how the Son is said to receive the kingdom of the Father; shewn to the
Prophet as no bare Word 8, but as the Son of Man (for He humbled Himself, as it is
written, being found for our sakes in fashion as a Man), that He first brought back to His
Kingdom, might be shewn forth a Beginning and Way to us of Glory into the Kingdom. And as
He being by Nature Life did for our sakes descend unto death after the Flesh for all, that
He might free us both from death and corruption, by His likeness to us having immingled us
as it were with Himself and rendered us partakers of eternal life: so doth He confashion
Himself to our low repute, being Lord of Glory as God, that He might restore the nature of
man to the royal honour also.

For in all things He hath the preeminence, as Paul saith, being both the Way and the Door
and the Firstfruits of the good things of human nature, from death to life, from
corruption to incorruption, from weakness to might, from bondage to sonship, from
dishonour and ignominy to honour and kingly glory. Therefore when the Son appears to
receive as Man what He had as God, let us no wise be offended but let us consider rather
the mode of the oeconomy on our account and for us. For so we shall preserve our mind
unwounded and unhurt. 36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. Not simply,
nor without examination doth the most wise Baptist testify that to them that believe in
Christ is life set forth, as their Reward, but he brings forth to us the proof of it from
the very quality so to speak of things. For the Only Begotten is by Nature Life: for in
Him we live and move and are. But He is introduced into us of a surety through faith, and
dwelleth in us through the Holy Ghost: and the blessed John the Evangelist will testify
saying in his epistles Hereby know we that He dwelleth in us, because He hath given us of
His Spirit. Christ will therefore quicken them that believe in Him, as being Himself Life
by Nature and dwelling in them. But that the Son indwelleth in us by faith, Paul will
furnish proof, saying, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, of Whom the whole
family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of
His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit; that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. Since then through faith Life by Nature entereth into us, how is he not
true that saith, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life? that is to say, the
Son Himself, nought else than Him being conceived of as Life.

and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life. Doth then (will haply some one say)
the Baptist preach to us another opinion, and corrupt the doctrine of the resurrection,
saying that he that believeth shall be quickened, wholly asserting that he that doth not
shall not see life? We shall not all, it seems, rise; his word introducing to us this
distinction. Whither then will that pass away, that is said absolutely and as it were to
all, The dead shall be raised? What is Paul too about, saying, For we must all appear
before the judgement seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his
body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad? I suppose then that he
that is eager after learning ought to be praised, nevertheless most accurate scrutiny must
be made in Holy Scripture. For see clearly, I pray you, the distinction between the things
said. For of the believer he says that he shall have everlasting life, of the unbeliever,
the word hath a different significance. For he does not say that he shall not have life:
for he shall be raised by the common law of the resurrection; but he says that he shall
not see life, that is, he shall not so much as arrive at the bare sight of the life of the
saints, he shall not touch their blessedness, he shall remain untasting of their life
passed in bliss. For that is indeed life.

But to exist in punishment is bitterer than all death, holding the soul in the body only
for the sensation of sufferings. Some such difference in life Paul also brings forward.
Hear what he says to those who are dead to evil for Christ's sake, For ye are dead, and
your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ, your 9 life, shall appear, then shall ye
also appear with Him in glory. Seest thou how he calls appearing in glory with Christ the
life of the saints? But what when the Psalmist too sings to us, saying, What man is he
that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil.
Shall we not say that herein is signified the life of the saints? but it is, I think,
evident to all. For he does not, forsooth, bid some to refrain from evil, that they may
obtain the resurrection of the flesh hereafter (for they will rise again even if they do
not cease from evil), but he rouses them rather to that life, wherein they may wholly see
good days, passing an endless life in bliss and glory.

but the wrath of God abideth on him. More openly by means of this which follows did the
blessed Baptist shew us the aim of what has been said. Let him who loves to search
consider carefully the force of the thought. He that believeth not (he saith) on the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. But if it were possible to
understand that the unbeliever should be indeed bereft of the life in the body, he would
surely have immediately added, "but death abideth on him." But since he calls it the wrath
of God, it is plain that he is contrasting the punishment of the ungodly with the
enjoyments of the saints, and that he calls that life, which is the true life in glory
with Christ, and the torments of the ungodly, the wrath of God. That punishment is
ofttimes called wrath by the Divine Scriptures, I will adduce two witnesses, Paul and
John: for the one said to the converted among the Gentiles, And were by nature the
children of wrath, even as others; and the other to the Scribes and Pharisees, O
generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

Chap. iv.2, 3 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and
baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself baptized not but His disciples),
He left Judaea and departed again into Galilee. Whence our history proceeds to this point,
or from what commencement the order of the narrative progressing, introduces the Lord as
knowing that the Pharisees had learnt what they enquired, it will not be amiss (it
appears) to say. For in that the holy Evangelist saith When therefore the Lord knew, it
clearly brings forth a certain declaration of a subject previously under consideration.
For He knew all things, without any one telling Him, of Himself, as God, and not at their
first coming into existence, but even before they be, as the prophet testified. But He
awaiteth the right season for each, and yields rather to the order of things, than to His
foreknowledge: for this too was worthy of God-befitting ceconomy.

There being then a question between some of John's disciples and a Jew about purifying,
there was much disputing on both sides. For the one taking the part of their own master,
were contending that his Baptism was far superior to the legal sprinklings and typical
purifications of the others. And indeed probably they were adducing as a proof of this,
that many came to him, and very gladly left the more ancient and older customs. These
again on the other hand, when the argument was being borne down headlong by the opposite
party, and the force of truth rushing down like waters, was overwhelming the feeble mind
of its opponents, go against their own opinion, and against their own will say that the
baptism bestowed through Christ is far more excellent. And now they begin to have the
upper hand, using like arguments for their proof, and rising up against their conquerors
with the same arguments. For they were affirming that many more are seen going to Christ,
and that all men hasten to Him rather than to John. Whence I suppose the disciples of John
kindled with grief go to their master and say, Rabbi, He That was with thee beyond Jordan,
to Whom thou barest witness, behold, the Same baptizeth, and all men come to Him. The
propositions or arguments of the Jews put forth out of strife, they put forward
interrogatively. Hence therefore the Evangelist says that the Lord knew that the Pharisees
had heard that Jesus made more disciples than John, then that He shunning their lawless
jealousy, and keeping His Passion for its own time, retreats from the land of the Jews,
and withdraws again into Galilee.

4, 5 And He must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh He to a city of Samaria which is
called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. O great
readiness of mind and deep prudence! He prevents by his answers the things that would have
been asked of him. For some one would straightway have said, either speaking to another,
or secretly reasoning, Why did our Lord Jesus Christ, in not fit season, give illumination
to the Samaritans? For once there came to Him the Syrophenician woman, with tears
entreating mercy for her wretched daughter; and what said the Compassionate to her? It is
not meet, saith He, to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. For He did not
think it right, I suppose, to pour forth upon the Gentiles before the time the grace
assigned to them of Israel. And this Himself made clearer by saying, I am not sent but
unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. How then (will one say) did He Who was sent to
Israel alone begin to instruct the race of the Samaritans, albeit Israel had not yet
wholly spurned the grace? To such things does he introduce the reply persuasive with
power, to wit, that He must needs go through Samaria. For not for this reason alone did He
arrange His sojourn with the Samaritans, that He might preach the word among them, and
wholly transfer the whole blessing from Israel: but since He must needs pass through,
therefore doth He teach, fulfilling the work of wisdom.

For as fire will never cease from its inherent natural operation of burning; so I deem it
wholly impossible, that the Wisdom of all should not work what befits wisdom. And as,
while saying that it is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it unto dogs,
yet to the woman who wept and entreated for pity with many words, He cast the grace, not
admonished by another of the season for giving it, but Himself with the Father being
Appointer of it, as Son and God and Lord: so did He pity the Samaritans too, and unveiling
the Ineffable Might of His God-befitting Authority, He made the illumination of a whole
country the bye-work of a journey. It were besides strange, that Israel, who was already
mad in folly, and imagining slaughter against the Lord, should be perfectly loved. But
since they do not yet thoroughly persecute Him, but as yet only in measure, therefore our
Lord Jesus the Christ also doth not yet wholly strip them of His grace, but doth
nevertheless draw off the blessing by little and little to others. But His departing
wholly from the country of the Jews, and hasting to go into that of aliens, by reason of
the cruelty of His persecutors, was a threat, depicted on the nature of the thing as in a
type, that they should endure the total loss of grace, and should dismiss unto others
their own good, that is, the Christ, unless they abstained from their violence against
Him.

6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus
on the well. Having crossed the borders of Judaea, and being now among aliens, the Saviour
rests upon Jacob's well: shewing us again as in a type and darkly, that even though the
preaching of the Gospel should depart from Jerusalem, and the Divine Word at length hasten
forth to the Gentiles, there shall not be lost therewith to Israel the love to their
fathers, but Christ shall cleave to them again, and shall again be refreshed and rest, as
in His Saints, preserving to them the pristine unfading grace. For He loveth to dwell in
the memories of His saints, that He may make Himself an en-sample to us in this also, and
may become the Beginning and Door of the honour given to the fathers. But being wearied
with His journey, as it is written, He resteth, that in this too He may accuse the impiety
of those that drove Him away. For whereas they ought to have gained His friendship by
kindly honours, cherishing Him with reverence and fear, as a Benefactor, they maltreat the
Lord with toil and labours, that He may be true, saying of them in the book of Psalms, And
they rewarded Me evil for good.

Herein then is seen the daring of the Jews. But what will the Arians again, neighbours of
these in folly, answer us to this, yea rather to whom it would rightly be said, Sodom was
justified by thee? For the one crucify Christ in the Flesh, but the others rage against
the Ineffable Nature Itself of the Word. Lo, He was wearied with His journey: Who was He
Who suffered this? will ye bring before us the Lord of Hosts lacking in might, and will ye
lay upon the Only Begotten of the Father the toil of the journey, that He may be conceived
of as even Passible, Who cannot suffer? Or will ye, acting rightly, refuse so to think,
and attribute the charge of these to the nature of the Body only, yea rather will ye say
that the toil befits the Human Nature, rather than Him Who is, and is conceived of, as
bare Word by Himself? As then He Who possesseth in His Own Nature Power over all things,
and is Himself the Strength of all, is said to be wearied (for do not I pray do not divide
the One Christ into a Duality of Sons, even though He make His own the sufferings of His
Human Nature) albeit He abideth Impassible, since He became Man, Who had it not in Him to
be weary;

so if He at all speak also of things which we think rather befit man, and not God, let us
not hunt after words, nor, when we most need skill unto piety, be then caught in exceeding
folly, putting the plan of the oeconomy of the Flesh far away from us, ascending hotly to
the Very Godhead of the Word, and laying hold with much folly of the things above us. For
if He were not altogether called Man, if He were not made in the form of a servant, it
were right to be troubled, when one said anything servile of Him, and to demand rather all
things according to what befits God. But if in firm faith and unswervingly we are
confident, that according to the voice of John, The Word was made Flesh, and tabernacled
among us, when thou seest Him speaking as Flesh, that is, as Man, receive discourse
befitting man, for confirmation of the preaching. For in no other way could we know
certainly, that He being God and Word, became Man, had not the Impassible been recorded to
have suffered something, and the High One to have uttered something lowly.

it was about the sixth hour. He shews that opportunely did Jesus rest upon the well. For
the sun pouring down its strongest rays from the mid-vault on those upon the earth, and
consuming bodies with its unmitigated strokes, it would not have been without hurt to have
gone further, but was more convenient to rest a little, especially when He would easily
have thrust away the charge of luxuriousness, if the fitness of the season had agreed
thereto. He does not say that it was the sixth hour precisely, but about the sixth hour,
that we too may learn not to be indifferent even about the least things, but rather to try
and practise truth in common things. 7, 8, 9 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw
water: Jesus saith unto her, Give Me to drink. (For His disciples were gone away unto the
city to buy meat). Then saith the woman of Samaria unto Him,

The Saviour was not ignorant of the woman's coming. For right well did He know being Very
God, that she would forthwith be there to draw the cold stream from the fountain. But when
she was now come, He began to get His prey within the toils, and straightway holding forth
the word of teaching, made His discourse from what was before Him. The Law appointed for
the Jews that they must not be defiled in any way, and therefore ordered them to withdraw
from every unclean thing, and not to mix themselves up with strangers, or uncircumcised.
But they, carrying forward the force of the commandment to something more, and following
most empty observances, ratter than the exactness of the Law, nor venturing so much as to
touch the flesh of any alien, used to think that they would incur all uncleanness, if they
were found having to do with the Samaritans in anything. To so great an extent did their
disagreement at length advance, that they recoiled from tasting water or food brought to
them by the hand of aliens. In order then that the woman may exclaim, and that His
unwonted conduct may invite her to ask Who He is, and whence, and how He despises the
Jewish customs; and so at length the conversation may come to His aim, He makes as though
thirsty, saying, Give Me to drink. But she said,

10 How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for
the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her, Enquiry
is the beginning of learning, and to those who are ignorant upon any subject, doubt
concerning it is the root of understanding. This commencement the discourse aims at:
wherefore the Saviour wisely hints, that He accounts of no value the customs of the Jews.
11 If thou knewest the gift of God, and Who It is That saith to thee, Give Me to drink;
thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. The woman
saith unto Him, Not knowing the Essence of the Only Begotten, surpassing earth and heaven,
yea rather being wholly ignorant of the Incarnate Word, the woman was calling Him a Jew.
And profitably is He silent to this, that the foundation of His discourse with her may be
kept. Yet does He uplift her to a higher conception of Himself, saying that she knows not
Who It is Who asked drink, or how great grace Divine gifts have, insomuch that if she had
had knowledge of it, she would not have endured to be behindhand, for she would have
prevented the Lord in asking. He rouses her then by these things to a very earnest wish to
learn. Observe how now too fashioning His discourse skillfully and free from boast, He
says that He is God, even though the woman be slow to understand. For inducing her to
marvel at the gift of God, He introduces Himself as the Giver of it. For if (says He,)
thou knewest the gift of God and Who It is That saith to thee, thou wouldest have asked of
Him. But whom would it befit to give the things of God? would it not Him Who is by Nature
God?

But He calls the quickening gift of the Spirit living water, whereby alone human nature,
albeit well nigh parched to its very roots, rendered now dry and barren of all virtue by
the villainies of the devil, runneth back to its pristine beauty of nature, and drinking
in the life-giving grace, is adorned with varied forms of good things, and shooting forth
into a virtuous habit puts forth most thriving shoots of love towards God. Some such thing
as this God says to us by the Prophet Isaiah also, The beast of the field shall honour Me,
the dragons and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the
desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen, whom I have formed for Myself to declare
Mine excellencies. And another of the Saints says that the soul of the righteous shall be
as a fruitful tree, and shall spring up as grass among the waters, and shall appear as the
willow by running water.

We might heap up, besides those already quoted, many other testimonies also from the
Divine Scripture, whence it would be very easy to shew, that under the name of water, the
Divine Spirit is often named. But it is no time to linger here. Wherefore we will swim to
other places, pressing on upon the great and wide sea of Divine meditations. Sir, Thou
hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast Thou that living
water? The woman imagines nothing more than what she is accustomed to; and by no means
understands the force of what is said, but supposes that like some of those who are
accustomed to work wonders by means of charms and devilish deceit, without a line or other
contrivance He will draw up the water to her from the depths of the well. But she calls
that living water, according to her own meaning, which has fresh flowed from the breasts
of the fountain.

12, 13 Art Thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof
himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, The woman
arrests herself, and that as quickly as possible, being conscious that she had taken up
ideas of Him neither holily nor surely true. For it was not possible that she should not
be altogether profited to understanding, who is wholly enjoying the Divine words. Since
then it was possible that He Who speaks should not be a magician, but rather a Prophet,
and one of those surpassing in holiness, and had therefore promised to give her the living
water, without the usual means of buckets, or having found water far better to use from
another source, she straightway changes her discourse for the soberer, and as it were
compares saint with saint, saying, Art Thou greater than our father Jacob who gave us this
well? Receive the intelligence of her thought, from her no longer wondering at His
promising water with out a rope, but speaking only of its quality to the taste.

The Samaritans then were aliens (for they were colonists of the Babylonians), but they
call Jacob their father for two reasons. For as inhabiting a country bordering on, and the
neighbour of the Jews' land, they were taking a little impression themselves of their
worship, and were accustomed to boast of the Jews' ancestors. Besides, it was really true
that the greater number of the inhabitants of Samaria were sprung from the root of Jacob.
For Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, having gathered together ten tribes of Israel, and the
half-tribe of Ephraim, departed from Jerusalem in the time of the kingdom of Rehoboam the
son of Solomon, and took Samaria, and built houses therein and cities. 14, 15 Whosoever
drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a
well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto Him,

The woman of Samaria proposing, as a hard question and difficult to cope with. Art Thou
greater than our father Jacob; the Saviour most skilfully avoids all boasting, not saying
clearly that He is greater, yet from the nature of the actions does He persuade her to
approve Him who excels. Therefore He shews that incomparable is the difference between the
spiritual waters, and the sensible and grosser ones, saying, Whosoever shall drink of this
water shall thirst again, but he that is filled (saith He) with My water, shall not only
be shewn to be superior to thirst henceforth, but he shall have in him a well of water
able to nourish him to eternal life. Therefore He that giveth the greater, is greater
(saith He) than he that hath the less, and the worsted will not carry off the same glory
as the conqueror. We must know again, that the Saviour here calls the grace of the Holy
Ghost water, whereof if any be partaker, he shall have the gift of the Divine teaching
evermore flowing up within him, so as no more to be in need of admonition from others, yea
rather, readily to suffice to exhort those who thirst after the Divine and heavenly Word,
such as were some yet living in this present life and upon earth, the holy Prophets and
Apostles, and the heirs of their ministrations, of whom it was written, And ye shall draw
water with joy out of the wells of salvation.

16 Give me this water, that I thirst not neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto
her, Again does she both speak and imagine only ordinary things, and of the things that
were said understands no whit; but she supposes that in being released from petty toils,
will consist all the aim of our Saviour, and to thirsting no more does she bound the
measure of the grace of God, not so much as in bare idea receiving things above the world.
Go call thy husband, and come hither. Well and not untruly might one say, that the minds
of woman are womanish, and that an effeminate soul is in them, never having the power of
understanding readily. But the nature of man somehow is apter for learning, and far more
ready for reasoning, having a mind awake to wisdom, and (so to say) warm, and of matured
manhood. For this reason (I suppose) did He bid the woman call her husband, secretly
convicting her as having a heart most slow to learn, not practised in the words of wisdom;
yet He is at the same time contriving something else most beautiful.

17, 18, 19 The woman saith to Him I have no husband. Jesus saith unto her, Thou hast well
said I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not
thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. The woman saith unto Him, To whom is it not now
evident that the Saviour was not ignorant that she was bereft of any rightful husband and
that He made the enquiry about her husband who was not, a plea for making known hidden
things? For He was, He was thus with difficulty able to help her no longer marvelling at
Him as one of us, but as now above man, by reason of His wondrous knowledge of her
circumstances. And profitably does He approve her saying she has no husband, although she
had had so many; for not the coming together out of pleasure, but the approval of the law
and bond of pure love make marriage blameless.

Sir, I perceive that THOU art a Prophet. With difficulty does she brighten up to
apprehension, and that again not yet perfect. For she still calls the Lord of Prophets a
Prophet. But she has by degrees shewn herself better than before, in no way ashamed at
reproof, seizing to her own profit the force of the sign and so going forth from her
effeminate understanding, attaining to some extent to a vigorous mind, and stretching
forth the eye of her heart to an unwonted view of things. Wherein we must chiefly admire
alike the forbearance and power of our Saviour, who easily remodels our untutored
understanding to an admirable condition. 20, 21 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain,
and YE say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto
her, Conceiving that the Lord is in truth a Prophet and a Jew, she boasts exceedingly of
the customs of her country, and asserts that the Samaritans are far superior in wisdom to
the Jews. For the Jews admitting too gross notions of the Divine and Incorporeal Nature,
contended that in Jerusalem alone, or its neighbour Sion, ought the God over all to be
worshipped, as though the whole Ineffable and Incomprehensible Nature had once for all
there taken abode, and was enclosed in temples made with hands. Wherefore they were
convicted of being utterly without understanding, by the voice of the Prophets, God
saying, Heaven is My Throne and earth is My Footstool, what house will ye build Me, saith
the Lord, or what is the place of My rest? The Samaritans again little remote from the
folly of the Jews, bordering both in country alike and uninstructedness, supposing that in
the mount called Gerizim they ought both to pray and worship, rightly escape not being
laughed at. But the plea to them also of their senselessness was, that the blessing was
given in Mount Gerizim, as we find written in Deuteronomy. This question the woman
proposes to the Saviour, as some great and difficult problem, saying, Our fathers
worshipped in this mountain, &c.

Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming, when neither in Jerusalem nor in this mountain,
shall ye worship the Father. He condemns alike the folly of all, saying that the mode of
worship of both shall be transformed to the more truthful. For no longer (saith He) shall
a place be sought, wherein they shall deem that God properly dwells, but as filling and
able to contain all things, shall they worship the Lord every one from his place, as one
of the holy Prophets says. He says that His own sojourn in the world with a Body is the
time and season for a change of such customs. Observe how with most gentle leading of
discourse, does He guide the mind of the woman to right conceptions respecting the Son, by
calling God the Father. For how shall the Father at all be conceived of, if the Son be
not?

Chapter V. That the Son is not in the number of worshippers, in that He is Word and God,
but rather is worshipped with the Father.

22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. He
speaks again as a Jew and a man, since the economy of the matter in hand demands now too
this mode of speaking (for Christ would not have missed meet opportunity): yet does He
attribute something more in respect of understanding to the worship of the Jews. For the
Samaritans worship God simply and without search, but the Jews having received through the
Law and Prophets the knowledge of Him Who is, as far as they were able. Therefore He says
that the Samaritans know not, but that the Jews have good knowledge, of whom He affirms,
that salvation shall be revealed, that is Himself. For Christ was of the seed of David
according to the flesh, David of the tribe of Judah. Amongst the worshippers again as Man
does He class Himself, Who together with God the Father is worshipped both by us and the
holy angels. For since He had put on the garb of a servant, He fulfilleth the ministry
befitting a servant, having not lost the being God and Lord and to be worshipped. For He
abideth the Same, even though He hath become Man, retaining throughout the plan of the
dispensation after the Flesh.

And even though thou see an abasement great and supernatural, approach wondering, not
accusing, not faultfinding, but rather imitating. For such Paul desireth to see us,
saying, Let this mind be in each of you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the
Form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself: taking upon
Him the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a
Man, He humbled Himself. Seest thou how the Son became to us a Pattern of lowliness, being
in Equality and Form of the Father as it is written: yet descended for our sakes to a
voluntary obedience and lowliness? How then could the garb of obedience, how could that of
lowliness appear, otherwise than through deeds and words beneath His God-befitting
Dignity, and having a great inferiority to those wherein He was while yet bare Word with
the Father, and not involved in the form of a servant? How shall we say that He has at all
descended, if we allow Him nothing unworthy of Him? How was He made in the likeness of
men, according to the voice of Paul, if He imitated not what befits man? But a thing most
befitting men is worship, regarded in the light of a debt, and offered by us to God.
Therefore He worshippeth as Man, when He became Man; He is worshipped ever with the
Father, since He was and is and will be, God by Nature and Very.

But our opponent will not endure this, but will withstand us, saying: "Think it not
strange when we say that the Son worships: for we do not suppose that the Son ought to
worship the Father, in the same way as we or the angels, for example: but the worship of
the Son is something special and far better than ours." What then shall we reply to these
things? Thou thinkest, fellow, to mislead us, by putting a most noble bondage about the
Only-Begotten, and gilding over the dignity of a servant by certain words of deceit. Cease
from glorifying the Son with dishonour, that thou mayest continue to honour the Father.
For he that honoureth not the Son, neither doth he honour the Father, as it is written.
For what (tell me) will it profit the Only-Begotten in respect of freedom, that His
worship of the Father should be made more excellent than ours? For so long as He is found
among worshippers, He will be altogether a bondman, and even though He be conceived of as
a superior worshipper, yet will He by no means differ from creatures in respect of being
originate, but only in the remaining excellencies, as to men is superior Michael or any
other of the holy and reasonable powers, to whom superiority to those upon earth seems
essentially to belong, either in respect of holiness or any superabundance of glory, it
having been so decreed by the Chief Artificer of all things, God: but the being classed
with things originate, as having been created, is common to them with the rest. The Word
then Who is in the Father and of the Father by Nature will never escape being originate,
even though He be said to worship in a more excellent way. Then how will that which is
made be yet Son, or how will the bondman and worshipper be by Nature Lord?

For I suppose that the royal and lordly dignity is pre-eminent in being worshipped: but
the office of servant and slave is defined in his paying worship. We confess then by being
subject that we hold ourselves bound to worship the Nature which is superior and above
all. Wherefore it was proclaimed to the whole creation by the all-wise Moses, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. So that to whatsoever servitude
belongs by nature, and whatever boweth under the yoke of the Godhead, this full surely
must needs worship, and submit to the garb of adoration. For in saying Lord, he defines
the bond, in saying God, the creature. For together are they conceived of, and contrasted,
the bond with Him who is by Nature Lord, and that which is brought into being, with the
Inoriginate Godhead. But seeing the Son is eternally in the Father and is Lord as God, I
am at a loss to shew whence He can appear to owe worship. But let them proceed with their
babbling: "The Only Begotten (says he) will worship the Father, neither as bond nor
created, but as a Son the Father." We must therefore take adoration into the definition of
Sonship, and say that it altogether behoves the Son to worship the Father, for that in
this consists His being, even as does ours in being reasonable mortal creatures, recipient
of mind and knowledge, rather than in committing ourselves to motions external and
impulsive, and to the mere swayings of will. For if there have been implanted by Nature
into the Only Begotten, the duty wholly and of necessity to worship, and they so hold and
say, how will they not be caught in naked blasphemy against the Father Himself? For it is
altogether necessary to conceive of Him too as such, since the Son is His Image and
Impress, and whatever things are in exact likeness, these full surely will differ in
nothing. But if they say that the Son pays worship to the Father in will alone, they are
guessers, rather than knowers of the truth. For what would hinder others too from saying,
fabricating a hazardous piety, that it was the will of the Father to worship the Son,
though not a worshipper by Nature?

"But (says he) fitness itself will remove the Person of the Father, will subject the Son
to this, His worship of the Father not unwilled." What sayest thou, o sir? Dost thou again
bring forth to us oracles as from shrines, or Greek tripods, or comest thou like that
Shemaiah the Nehelamite, belching forth out of thine own heart, and not out of the mouth
of the Lord? and dost thou not blush, opposing to us fitness, as though invincible in
these matters? For dost thou not think it befits Him Who is by. Nature God, to have the
Word begotten of Him God, and that He Whom the whole creation worships, should be called
and be by Nature the Father of a Son Who is worshipped, rather than a worshipper? But I
think I say nothing displeasing to the truly wise. But how shall we define that it also
befits that the Father be worshipped by His Own offspring, when such a conception as to
Both endures so great damage? For in the first place that which worships not will be
neither in equality of dignity, nor in exact Image of nature with that which worships. For
it worships as inferior, and that not measurable by quantity, in respect of any natural
quality (for He That is God or Lord will not be lesser), but as differing in the
definition of mode of being. Then how will He be shewn to be true in saying, He that hath
seen Me hath seen the Father? how doth He say that He ought to be honoured in no less
degree than the Father, if He be not His Equal in glory by reason of His worshipping?

Then besides, the Father will Himself too appear to be in no slight unseemliness. For it
is His glory to beget such as Himself is by Nature: on the other hand it is no slight
disgrace, to have a son of another kind and alien, and to be in such case as even the very
nature of things originate shrinks from. For they that have received power to bear, bear
not worse than themselves, by the ordinance and will of the Artificer of all things. For,
saith He, let the earth bring forth grass, the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind
and after his likeness. The Godhead then will be in worse case than things originate,
since they are thus, It not so, but that which was adjudged alike to befit and to have
been well arranged for the successions of things which are, this It Alone will be found
without.

Who then, most excellent sirs, will endure you saying, that it befits the Son to worship
His Father? But when it has been added to those words of yours, that neither is this
unwilled by the Only-Begotten, and this gratuitous argument of yours ye fortify merely by
fitness; come, let us consider this too from the Divine Scriptures, whence I think one
ought zealously to look for proof on every disputed point. The law therefore enjoined the
half of a didrachm to be paid by every one of the Jews to Him Who is God over all, not as
devising a way of getting wealth, nor contributions of money to no purpose, but imparting
us instruction by clearest types: first, that no one is lord of his own head, but that we
all have one Lord, enrolled unto servitude by the deposit of tribute; next, depicting the
mental and spiritual fruits, as in a grosser representation and act. For (says he) Honour
the Lord with thy righteous labours, and render Him the first fruits of thy fruits of
righteousness, which came to pass through the Gospel teaching, the worship after the law
being at last closed. For no longer do we think we ought to worship with external
offerings the Lord of all, pressing to pay the didrachm of corruptible matter: but being
true worshippers, we worship God the Father in Spirit and in. truth. This meaning we must
suppose to lie hid in the letter of the law.

When then the Lord was in Jerusalem, the gatherers of the didrachm were asking of Peter,
saying, Doth not your Master pay the didrachm? But when he was come into the house, as it
is written, Jesus prevented him, saying, of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or
tribute? of their own. children or of strangers? When he said, Of strangers, Jesus said,
Then are the children free; yet lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast
an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth,
thou shalt find a stater: that take and give unto them for Me and thee. Seest thou that
the Son endured not to be under tribute, and as one of those under' the yoke of bondage,
to undergo a servile thing? For knowing the free dignity of His Own Nature He affirms that
He owes nothing servile to God the Father: for He says, The children are free. How then
hath He the worship befitting a slave, and that of His own will? He who shrank at even the
bare type of the thing, how could He accept the verity? For shall we not reckon worship as
a tribute and spiritual fruit-bearing, and say that it is a kind of service? For why did
the law join service to worship, saying, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only
shalt thou serve? For worship is so to say the gate and way to service in deed, being the
beginning of servitude to God. Wherefore the Psalmist says to some, O come, let us worship
and fall down, and weep before the Lord our Maker. Seest thou how the duty of falling down
follows upon, and is joined to, worshipping? than which what will be more befitting a
servant, at least in the estimation of those who rightly weigh the qualities of things, I
cannot say.

But if our opponents persist, bearing themselves haughtily in yet unbroken impudence, and
cease not from their uninstructed reasonings on these subjects, let them going through the
whole Holy Scripture, shew us the Son worshipping God the Father, while He was yet bare
Word, before the times of the Incarnation and the garb of servitude. For now as Man, He
worships unblamed: but then, not yet so. But they will not be able to shew this from the
Divine and sacred Scriptures, but heaping up conjectures and surmisings of corrupt
imaginations, will with reason hear. Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the glory
of the Only Begotten. For that He does not worship in that He is Word and God, but having
become as we, He undertook to endure this too as befits man, by reason of the dispensation
of the Flesh----; the proof shall not be sought by us from without, but we shall know it
from His own Words. For what is it that He is saying to the woman of Samaria? YE worship
ye know not what, WE know what we worship. Is it not hence too clear to every body that in
using the plural number and numbering Himself with those who worship of necessity and as
bond, that it is as made in human nature which is bond that He is saying this? For what
(tell me) would hinder His drawing the worship apart into His own Person, if He wished to
be conceived of by us as a worshipper? for He should rather have said, I know what I
worship, in order that, unclassed with the rest, He might appropriate the force of the
utterance to Himself alone. But, now most excellently and with all security He says WE, as
already ranked among the bond by reason of His Manhood, as numbered among the worshippers,
as a Jew by country.

23, 24, 25 But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the
Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit
and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman saith to Him, He is
intimating the time now present of His Own Presence and says that the type shall be
transferred to truth and the shadow of the Law to spiritual worship: He tells that through
the Gospel teaching the true worshipper, that is, the spiritual man, shall be conducted to
a polity well-pleasing unto the Father, hasting unto ownness with God. For God is
conceived of as a Spirit, in reference to the embodied nature. Rightly therefore does He
accept the spiritual worshipper, who does not in form and type carry in Jewish wise the
form of godliness, but in Gospel manner resplendent in the achievements of virtue and in
rightness of the Divine doctrines fulfilleth the really true worship.

We know that Messias is coming, Which is called Christ: when He is come, He will tell us
all things. Upon Christ teaching that the hour and season will come, rather is already
present, wherein the true worshippers shall offer to God the Father the worship in spirit;
forthwith the woman is winged to thoughts above her wont unto the hope spoken of by the
Jews. She confesses that she knows that the Messiah will come in His own time, and to whom
He will come, she does not exactly say, receiving (as is like) the common reports of Him
without any investigation, as being a laughter-loving and carnal-minded woman; yet is she
not wholly ignorant that He will be manifested to Israel as a bringer in of better
teaching, finding most certainly this information too in the reports about Him. 26 Jesus
saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He.

Not to untutored or wholly ignorant souls doth Christ reveal Himself, bat shines upon and
appears the rather to those who are more ready to desire to learn, and travailing with the
beginning of the faith in simple words, press forward to the knowledge of what is more
perfect. Such an one as this was the woman of Samaria also shewn to us, giving her mind
more grossly than she ought to the truly Divine ideas, but not entirely removed from the
desire of understanding somewhat. For first, on Christ asking for drink, she does not
readily give it: but beholding Him breaking (as far as one can speak humanly) the national
customs of the Jews, she begins to seek first the reason of this, all but, by her
mentioning it, inviting the Lord to an explanation: How is it (says she) that THOU being a
Jew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria? But when during the progress of
questioning, she at length begun to confess that He was a Prophet, having received His
reproof a medicine unto salvation, she added another inquiry saying with zeal for
learning: Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and YE say that in Jerusalem is the
place where men ought to worship. But He was teaching this again, that the time shall
come, yea, is already present, when the true worshippers, rejecting worship on the
mountains of earth, shall offer the higher and spiritual worship to God the Father.

She attributing the best of all as the due of the Christ alone, and keeping the more
perfect knowledge for those times, says, We know that Messias cometh Which is called
Christ; when He is come, He will tell us all things. Seest thou how ready to believe the
woman was already getting, and as though ascending a staircase, springs up from little
questions to a higher condition? It was right then to lay open to her with now clearer
voice what she longed for, telling her that that which was preserved in good hope is at
length set before her in sight, I that speak unto thee am He. Let them therefore who have
the care of teaching in the Churches commit to the new-born disciples, the word of
teaching to be digested, and so at length let them shew them Jesus, bringing them up from
slight instruction to the more perfect knowledge of the faith. But let them who, taking
hold of the alien and so proselyte, and bringing him within the inner veil, suffer him to
offer the Lamb with hands yet unwashen, and crown with the dignity of the Priesthood him
who is not yet instructed, prepare for a mighty account in the day of judgment. It is
sufficient for me only to say this. 27 And upon this came His disciples The presence of
the disciples is the conclusion of His conversation with the woman. For the Saviour is at
length silent, and having placed in the Samaritans the glowing spark of the faith, commits
it to their inward parts to be kindled to a mighty flame. Thus you may understand what was
said by Him, I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already
kindled?

and marvelled that He talked with the woman: The disciples again are astonished at the
gentleness of the Saviour, and wonder at His meek way. For not after the manner of some
who are fierce with unslacked religion, did He think right to shun conversation with the
woman, but unfolds His Loving-kindness to all, and hereby shews, that He being wholly One
Artificer, doth not to men alone impart the life through faith, but snareth the female
race also thereto. Let him that teacheth in the Church gain this too as a pattern, and not
refuse to help women. For one must in every thing follow not one's own will, but the
service of preaching. yet no man said, What seekest Thou? or, Why talkest Thou with her?
It was the work of wise disciples, and knowing how to preserve their Master's honour, not
to seem by their superfluous questions to be going off into strange surmises, because He
was talking with a woman, but rather in reverence and fear to restrain their tongue within
their teeth, and to await their Lord speaking of His own accord, and giving them a
voluntary explanation. We must therefore herein marvel at Christ for His gentleness, at
the disciples for their wisdom and understanding and knowledge of what is becoming.

28 The woman therefore left her waterpot and went her way into the city, The woman now
shews herself superior to and above the cares of the body, who two or three days ago was
the wife of many, and she who ofttimes was easily taken captive by vain pleasures, now
overreaches the flesh of its necessary want, disregarding alike thirst and drink, and is
re-wrought unto another habit through faith. Forthwith doth she, exercising love the
fairest of all virtues, and neighbourly-affection, diligently proclaiming to others also
the good which appeared to her, hasten quickly into the city. For probably the Saviour was
telling her, and secretly whispering in her mind, Freely ye received, freely give. Learn
we hereby, not to imitate that sloth-loving servant, and who therefore hid his talent in
the earth, but rather let us be diligent to trade with it. Which thing too that much-
talked-of woman well doing, communicates to the rest the good which fell to her, no longer
taking the water which she came to draw, from its fountain-depths, nor carrying home her
waterpot of the earth, but rather with Divine and heavenly grace and the all-wise teaching
of the Saviour filling the garners of her understanding.

We must hence learn, as in a type and outline, that by thoroughly despising little and
corporal things, we shall receive of God things manifold more and better. For what is
earthly water, compared with Heavenly wisdom? 29 and saith to the men Come see a Man which
told me all things that ever I did; is not This the Christ? O wondrous change! O truly
great and God-befitting Might, translucent with unspeakable marvel! Skilful workwoman unto
doctrine, and initiater is she, who understood none of the things that were said at first,
and therefore rightly heard, Go, call thy husband and come hither. For see how skilfully
she conversed with the Samaritans. She does not say at once that she has found the Christ,
nor does she introduce Jesus at first into her account. For rightly would she have been
rejected, as far surpassing the measure of words befitting her, finding her hearers not
ignorant of her habits. She first then prepares the way for this wonder, and having first
astonished them with the miracle, makes the way smoother, so to say, to the faith. Come
and see, she wisely says; all but crying aloud with more earnest voice, Sight alone will
suffice to belief, and will assure those present with its more note-worthy marvels. For He
Who knoweth the hidden things, and hath this great and God-befitting dignity, how shall He
not speed with prosperous course to the fulfilment of those things which He willeth?

30 They went out of the city, and came unto Him. The obedience of the Samaritans is a
conviction of the hardness of heart of the Jews, and their inhumanity is clearly shewn in
the gentleness of these. And let the seeker of learning see again the difference of habit
in both, that he may justly wonder at Jesus, departing from the Synagogue of the Jews, and
giving Himself rather to the aliens. For that Christ should come to the Jews, and for what
causes He should be revealed, the law of Moses declared to us, the all-august choir of the
Prophets did proclaim, and did point Him out at length all but present at the doors,
saying, Behold your God, Behold the Lord; and last of all John, the great among them that
are born of women, did manifest Him already appeared, and dwelling among us, saying,
Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world; and (yet more wonderfully
than all) the Saviour was revealing Himself through many deeds of power and God-befitting
authority. What then do these men unbridled unto strange counsels at last meditate yet?
They devise murder unjustly, they plot impiously, they envy stubbornly, they drive forth
of their land and city, the Life, the Light, the Salvation of all, the Way to the kingdom,
the Remission of sins, the Bestower of sonship.

Wherefore rightly said the Saviour, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold
your house is left unto you. But the Samaritans shew themselves superior to the folly of
the Jews, and by obedience victorious over their innate unlearning, having given ear to
one miracle only, they flock quickly to Jesus, not persuaded thereto by the voices of the
holy Prophets, or by the proclamations of Moses, nor yet the actual pointings of John, but
one only woman and she a sinner telling them of Him. With reason then, let us too admiring
the sentence of the Saviour against them, say, Righteous art Thou, o Lord, and upright Thy
Judgment. 31, 32 In the mean time His disciples prayed Him, saying Master, eat. But He
saith unto them Most excellently doth the Divine Evangelist manage the compilation of this
book, and omits nothing which he believes will at all be of use to the readers. Hear
therefore how he introduces Jesus again as the Ensample of a most note-worthy act. For I
do not think that any thing has been put in vain in the writings of the saints, but what
any man deems small, he sometimes finds pregnant with no contemptible profit. The
conversion of the Samaritans being then begun, and they on the point of looking for Him
(for He knew as God that they would come): wholly and entirely is He intent upon the
salvation of them which are called, and makes no account of bodily food, although wearied
with His journey, as it is written: that hereby again He might profit the teachers in the
Churches, and persuade them to disregard all fatigue, and use more diligent zeal for those
who are being saved, than for the care of their bodies. For Cursed, saith the Prophet, be
he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently. In order then that we may learn that the
Lord was accustomed to go without food at such times, he introduces the disciples, begging
and all but on their knees, that He would take a little of their provisions, as inevitable
and necessary food. For they had gone away into the city to buy meat which they had now
got and come with.

I have meat to eat that YE know not of. Skilfully does the Saviour fashion His answer from
what was before Him. He all but says darkly, that if they knew that the conversion of the
Samaritans was at the doors, they would have persuaded Him rather to cling to that as a
delicacy than to nourish the flesh. From this again we may learn how great love for man
the Divine Nature hath: for It considereth the return of the lost unto salvation as both
meat and treat. 33, 34 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought
Him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them, The disciples not yet understanding the discourse
which was obscure, were reasoning about what had often happened among themselves, and
descend to common place ideas, fancying that food had been brought Him by some one, and
that it was perhaps more costly or sweeter than what had been got together by them.

My meat is to do the Will of Him That sent Me and to complete His Work. Having wholly torn
away the veil from His speech, He shewed them in full translucence the truth, and
forthwith introduces Himself as a type unto future teachers of the world, of steadfast and
most exceeding excellent zeal, to wit in respect of the duty of teaching, and on this
account fitly keeping thought for the needful care of the body secondary. For in saying
that it was to Himself most pleasant meat, to do the Will of Him that sent Him and to
finish His Work, He limns the office of the Apostolic ministry and clearly shews, what
manner of men they ought to be in habit. For it was necessary (as it seems) that they
should be strung to taking thought for teaching only, and it behoved them to be so far
removed from the pleasure of the body, as at times not even to desire the service
necessary for the mere accomplishing its preservation from death.

And let this be said for the present, as tending to the type and pattern of Apostolic
polity. But if we must in addition to what has been said, apply ourselves to speak more
doctrinally, He says that He was sent, clearly by God the Father, either in respect of the
Incarnation, wherein He beamed on the world with Flesh, by the good Pleasure and
Approbation of the Father; or as the Word proceeding 10 in some way from the begetting
Mind, and sent and fulfilling His decree, not as though taken as a minister of others'
wills, but Himself being alike both the Living Word and the most evident Will of the
Father, readily saving those that were lost. Therefore in saying that it is the work of
Him That hath sent Him, Himself is shewn as its Fulfiller: for all things are by the
Father through the Son in the Spirit. For that the Son is the Word and Counsel and Will
and Power of the Father is, I suppose, evident to all: but it is no trouble to prove it
from the Divine Scripture also. Therefore let any one see that Ho is the Word in this, In
the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God: let him see
Counsel, in that the Psalmist says, as to God the Father, In Thy Counsel Thou guidedst me
and with glory didst Thou receive me:

let him see Will again in his saying, Lord in Thy Will give strength to my beauty. For He
strengthened the beauty of His saints, that is, their vigour unto every virtue, He, the
Living and Hypostatic Will of the Father, that is the SON. That He is Power also, thou
shalt again understand hence, Command, O God (he says) Thy strength: strengthen, O God,
that which Thou wroughtest for us. Thou seest clearly herein, that by the good Pleasure of
God the Father, His Power, that is, the Son, was Incarnate, that He might strengthen this
body, which He perfected for us. For if He had not tabernacled among us, neither would the
nature of the flesh at all have put off the infirmity of corruption. The Son then being
Himself the good Will of the Father, perfects His Work, being shewn forth salvation to
them that believe on Him.

But some one will say to this: "If the Son is Himself the Will of the Father, what will
was He sent to fulfil? for the fulfilled must needs be other than the fulfiller." What
therefore do we say to this? The giving of names indeed demands difference in the things
signified, but often there is no difference in respect of God, and word regarding the
supreme Nature rejects accuracy herein. For Its Properties are spoken of, not altogether
as they are in truth, but as tongue can express, and ear of man hear. For he that seeth
darkly, darkly also he speaketh. For what wilt thou do when He Who is by Nature Simple
introduceth Himself to us as compound, in that He saith of them of Israel, And their
children they made pass through the fire, which I commanded not, neither came it into My
heart? for must not the heart needs be other than he in whom it is? and how then shall God
be yet conceived of as Simple? The things therefore about God, are spoken of after the
manner of men: they are so conceived of, as befits God, and the measure of our tongue will
not wrong the Nature That is above all. And therefore even though the Son be found
speaking of the Will of the Father, as of something other than He, you will make no
difference, attributing fitly to the weakness of our words their not being able to say any
thing greater, nor to signify their meaning in any other way.

And let these things bo said in proof of the Son being conceived of as also the Will of
the Father; but in the passage before us, no reason will compel us to conceive that the
Will of the Father means the Son, but rather we may well receive it as His good Will to
the lost. 35 Say not YE, There are yet four months and the harvest cometh? He again taketh
occasions of His Discourse from the time and event, and from the grosser things of sense
He fashioneth His declaration of spiritual ideas. For it was yet winter at that time, and
the tender sprouting and fresh stalk of the seed was scarce bristling forth from the soil:
but after the expiration of four months, it was awaiting its fall into the hand of the
reaper. Do not therefore YE men say (saith He) that there are yet four months, and the
harvest cometh?

Behold I say unto you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white
already to harvest. That is, raising up the eye of your understanding a little from the
affairs of the earth, consider ye the spiritual sowing, that it hath progressed already
and whitened unto the floor, and at length calls for the reaper's sickle unto itself. But
from the similarity to things in actual life, you will see what is meant. For you will
conceive that the spiritual sowing and multitude of spiritual ears, are they who, tilled
beforehand by the voice of the Prophets, are brought to the faith that should be shewn
through Christ. But it is white, as being already ripe and ready to the faith, and
confirmed unto piety. But the sickle of the reaper is the glittering and most sharp word
of the Apostle, cutting away the hearers from the worship according to the law,
transferring them to the floor, that is, to the Church of God: there they bruised and
pressed by good toils shall be set forth pure wheat worthy of the garner of Him Who
gathereth it.

36, 37 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that
both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For herein is the saying
true, One soweth and another reapeth. It is the time (saith He) of the Word calling to the
Faith, and shewing to the hearers the arrival at its consummation of the legal and
Prophetic preachings. For the law by typical services, as in shadows did foreshew Him That
should come, that is, Christ: the Prophets after it, interpreting the words of the Spirit,
Yet a little while, were fore-signifying that He was even now at hand and coming. But
since He hath stepped within the doors, the word of the Apostles will not remove to far
distant hope that which was expected, but will reveal it already present: and will reap
from legal worship those who are yet in bondage to the law and who rest in the letter
only, and will transfer them as sheaves into the Evangelic habit and polity; and will
likewise cut off from polytheistic straying the worshipper of idols, and will transfer him
to the knowledge of Him That is in truth God, and, to speak all in brief and succinctly;
will transform them who mind things on the earth unto the life of the Angels through faith
to Christ-ward.

This (saith He) the word of the reapers will effect, yet shall it not be without an hire:
for it shall surely gather for them fruit which nourisheth unto life eternal: nor shall
they who receive rejoice in themselves alone but as having entered into the labours of the
Prophets, and having reaped the seed fore-tilled by them, shall fill up one company with
them. But I suppose that the most wise Paul, having throughly learnt the types of things
to come, hence says of the holy fathers and Prophets that, These all, perfected through
faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they
without us should not be made perfect. For the Saviour thought good, that the reaper
should rejoice together with him who before had sown. 38 I sent you to reap that whereon
YE have not laboured: other men have laboured, and YE are entered into their labours.

He at length unveils to them the whole mystery, and having removed the dark cloak of
words, renders most clear the understanding of His meaning. For the Saviour being a Lover
of the Prophets, and a Lover of the Apostles, makes neither the labour of those to be
apart from the hand of the Apostles, nor does He allot entirely to the holy Apostles the
glorying in respect of those who should be saved through faith in Him: but having mingled
as it were the toil of each with their mutual co-work, He says (and with great reason)
that one shall be the honour to both. He affirms that the Apostles had entered into the
labours of the holy Prophets, not suffering them to spring upon the good fame of those who
proceded them, but persuading them rather to honour them, as having gone before them in
labour and time. That this will be to us too a most beautiful lesson, who will refuse to
admit?

39 And from that city many of the Samaritans believed on Him for the saying of the woman
which testified, He told me all that ever I did. Israel is again hereby too condemned, and
by the obedience 11 of the Samaritans, is convicted of being alike reckless of knowing and
harsh. For the Evangelist marvels much at the many who believed on Christ, saying, For the
saying of the woman; although they who were instructed through the law to the knowledge
hereof, neither received the words of Moses, nor acknowledged that they ought to believe
the heraldings of the Prophets. He in these words prepares the way before, or rather
wisely makes a defence before, for that Israel should with reason be thrust away from the
grace and hope that is to Christ-ward and that instead should come in the more obedient
fulness of the Gentiles, or aliens. 40, 41 So when the Samaritans were come unto Him, they
besought Him that He would tarry with them: and He abode there two days. And many more
believed because of His Own Word,

He explains in simplicity of words what took place: but prepares again another proof, that
Israel ought justly to be cast off from their hope, and the aliens to be transplanted into
it. For the Jews with their bitter and intolerable surmises, spitefully entreat Jesus
manifoldly working miracles and radiant in God-befitting glory, and blush not to rage to
so great an extent as to make Him an exile, and zealously to drive out of their city Him
Who is the giver to them of all joy: while the Samaritans persuaded by the words of one
woman, consider that they ought to come to Him with all speed. And when they were come,
they began zealously to entreat Him to come into their city, and to pour forth to them of
the word of salvation; and readily does Christ assent to both, knowing that the grace will
not be unfruitful. For many believed because of His own Word.

Let him that is God-loving and pious hence know, that from them that grieve Him Christ
departeth, but He dwelleth in them that gladden Him through obedience and good faith. 42
And said unto the woman, No longer do we believe, because of thy saying: for ourselves
have heard Him and know that This is indeed the Saviour of the world. From the greater
things does the faith of the Samaritans spring, and not any longer from what they learn
from others, but from those whereof they are the wondering ear-witnesses. For they say
that they know that He is indeed the Saviour of the world, making the confession of their
hope in Him the pledge of their faith. 43, 44 Now after the two days He departed thence
unto Galilee. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet hath no honour in his own
country. He departs from Samaria, having now sown the Word of salvation, and like a
husbandman hidden the faith in them that dwell there, not that it might be bound captive
in the silence of them that received it, quiet and deep buried, but rather that it might
grow in the souls of all, creeping on and advancing ever to the greater, and running to
more evident might. But since He passes by Nazareth lying in the midst, wherein it is said
that He was also brought up, so that He seemed to be from thence and its citizen, and goes
down rather to Galilee; of necessity he offers an explanation of His passing it by, and
says that Jesus Himself had testified that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.
For it is our nature to think nothing of what we are accustomed to, even though it be
great and of price. And the Saviour thought not good to seek honour from them, like a
vain-glorious man and a braggart, but knew well that to those who have no thought that one
ought to honour one's teacher, neither would the word of the faith be any longer sweet and
acceptable. With reason then does He pass by, not thinking it right to expend useless
labours upon them who are nothing profited, and thus to lay down grace before them that
despise it. For it was not reasonable that they who sinned so deeply should do so
unpunished; since it is altogether confessed and undoubted, that they will undergo the
severest punishments, who knowingly despise Him and spurn a gift so worthy of marvel.

45 When therefore He was come into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all
the things that He did at Jerusalem at the feast; for they also went unto the feast. Not
without consideration do the Galileans receive Jesus, but in just astonishment at the
wondrous works which they themselves had already seen Him do, both by their piety towards
Him condemning the folly of the Jews, and found far superior in good feeling to those who
were instructed in the law. 46 He came therefore again into Cana of Galilee where He made
the water wine. Christ loveth to dwell among those that are well disposed, and to those
who more readily advance unto the perception and knowledge of benefits done them, He
poureth forth supplies of greater goods. He cometh then to work miracles in Cana, thinking
it fit to confer an additional benefit on those therein, in that He had through His signs
already wrought there, the idea previously implanted in their minds, that He could do all
things.

47, 48 And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard
that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he besought Him that He would come down
and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said unto him, The
nobleman cometh as to One able to heal, but he understandeth not yet that He is by Nature
God: he calleth Him Lord, but giveth not at all the true dignity of Lordship. For he would
have straightway fallen down and besought Him, not that he should by all means come to his
house, and go down with him to the sick lad; but should rather with authority and God-
befitting command drive away the sickness that fell on him. For what need for Him to be
present to the sick, whom He could easily heal, even absent? how was it not utterly
without understanding to suppose that He is superior to death, and in no wise to hold Him
God Who is filled with God-befitting Power?

49 Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto Him, A
mind yet hard dwelleth in them who arc deceived, but mightier will be the more wonder-
working power of Him That calleth them unto faith. Wherefore the Saviour says that they
need wonders, that they may easily be re-instructed unto what is profitable, and
acknowledge Him Who is by Nature God. Lord, come down ere my child die. Feeble indeed unto
understanding is the nobleman, for ho is a child in his petition for grace, and almost
doteswithout perceiving it. For by believing that Christ had power not only when present,
but that He would surely avail even absent, he would have had a most worthy conception of
Him. But now both thinking and acting most foolishly, he asks power befitting God, and
does not think He accomplishes all things as God, nor yet that He will be superior to
death, although beseeching Him to gain the advantage over him that had all but overcome;
for the child was at the point of death.

50 Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. Thus believing he ought to have come,
but Christ doth not reject our lack of apprehension; but benefiteth even the stumbling, as
God. That then which the man should have been admired for doing, this does he teach him
even when he doth it not, revealed alike as the Teacher of things most lovely, and the
Giver of good things in prayer. For in Go thy way is Faith: in thy son liveth is the
fulfilment of his longings, granted with plenteous and God-befitting Authority. 51 The man
believed the word that Jesus said to him, and went his way. And as he was now going down,
his servants met him and told him, saying, Thy son liveth. The one command of the Saviour
healeth two souls. For in the nobleman it worketh unwonted faith, the child it rescueth
from bodily death. Which is healed first it is hard to say. Both, I suppose,
simultaneously, the disease taking its departure at the command of the Saviour. And his
servants meeting him tell him of the healing of the child, shewing at the same time the
swiftness of the Divine commands (Christ ordering this very wisely), and by the fulfilment
of his hope, speedily confirming their master weak in faith.

52, 53, 54 He therefore enquired of them the hour when he began to amend; and they said
unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was
at the same hour in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed
and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when He was come out
of Judaea into Galilee. He enquires of them the hour of the turn for the better of the
sick child, to prove whether it coincides with the time of the grace. When he had learnt
that thus it was, and no otherwise, he is saved with his whole house, attributing the
power of the miracle to the Saviour Christ, and bringing to Him a firmer faith as a fruit
of thank-offering for these things. Chap. v.2, 3, 4 After this was the feast of the Jews,
and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem the pool which is called in the
Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent
folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel of the
Lord used to go down at a certain season into the pool, and trouble the water: whosoever
therefore first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever
disease he had.

Not for nothing does the blessed Evangelist straightway connect with what has been said
the Saviour's return thence to Jerusalem: but his aim probably was to shew how superior in
obedience were the aliens to the Jews, how great a difference of habit and manners is seen
between them. For thus and in no other way could we learn, that by the just judgment of
God Who ruleth all and knoweth not to accept the person of man, Israel with reason falleth
from the hope, and the fulness of the Gentiles is brought in in his place. It is not hard
by looking at the contrast of the chapters 12 to test what has been said. He shewed
therefore that He had by one miracle saved the city of the Samaritans, by one likewise the
nobleman, and by it had profited full surely (I ween) and exceeding much those who were
therein. Having by these things testified the extreme readiness of the aliens to
obedience, he brings the Miracle-worker back to Jerusalem, and shews Him accomplishing a
God-befitting act. For He wondrously frees the paralytic from a most inveterate disease
even as He had the nobleman's son just dying. But the one believed with his whole house,
and confessed that Jesus is God, while the others. who ought to have been astonished,
straightway desire to kill, and persecute, as though blasphemously transgressing, their
Benefactor, themselves against themselves pronouncing more shameful condemnation in that
they are found to fall short of the understanding of the aliens, and their piety towards
Christ. And this it was which was spoken of them in the Psalms, as to our Lord Jesus, Thou
shalt make them the back. For they having been set in the first rank because of the
election of the fathers, will come last and after the calling of the Gentiles. For when
the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, then shall all Israel be saved.

This line of thought the well-arranged order of the compilation of chapters brings forth
to us. But we will make accurate inquiry part by part of the meaning of single verses. 5,
6 And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus
saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time, The Jews having celebrated their
feast of unleavened bread, in which it is their custom to kill the sheep, to wit, at the
time of the Passover, Christ departeth from Jerusalem, and mingleth with the Samaritans
and aliens, and teacheth among them, being grieved at the stubbornness of the Jews. And
having barely returned at the holy Pentecost (for this was the next solemnity in Jerusalem
and at no great interval), He heals at the waters of the pool the paralytic, who had
passed long time in sickness (for it was even his thirty-eighth year): but who had not yet
attained unto the perfect number of the Law, I speak of four times ten or forty.

Here then will end the course of the history; but we must transform again the typical
letter unto its spiritual interpretation. That Jesus grieved departs from Jerusalem after
the killing of the sheep, goes to the Samaritans and Galileans, and preaches among them
the word of salvation, what else will this mean, save His actual withdrawal from the Jews,
after His sacrifice and Death at Jerusalem upon the Precious Cross, when He at length
began to freely give Himself to them of the Gentiles and aliens, bidding it to be shewn to
His Disciples after His Resurrection, that He goeth before them all into Galilee? But His
return again at the fulfilment of the weeks of holy Pentecost to Jerusalem, signifies as
it were in types and darkly, that there will be of His Loving Kindness a return of our
Saviour to the Jews in the last ages of the present world, wherein they who have been
saved through faith in Him, shall celebrate the all-holy feasts of the saving Passion. But
that the paralytic is healed before the full time of the law, signifies again by a
corresponding type, that Israel having blasphemously raged against Christ, will be infirm
and paralytic and will spend a long time in doing nothing; yet will not depart to complete
punishment, but will have some visitation from the Saviour, and will himself too be healed
at the pool by obedience and faith. But that the number forty is perfect according to the
Divine Law, will be by no means hard to learn by them who have once read the Divine
Scriptures. 7 Jesus saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered
Him,

An evident proof of the extreme goodness of Christ, that He doth not wait for entreaties
from the sick, but forecometh their request by His Loving Kindness. For He runneth, as you
see, to him as he lieth, and compassionateth him that was sick without comfort. But the
enquiry whether he would like to be relieved from his infirmity was not that of one asking
out of ignorance a thing manifest and evident to all, but of one stirring up to more
earnest desire, and inciting to most diligent entreaty. The question whether he willed to
obtain what he longed for is big with a kind of force and expression, that He has the
power to give, and is even now ready thereto, and only waits for the request of him who
receiveth the grace. 8 Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the
pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise.

About the day of the holy Pentecost, Angels coming down from heaven used to trouble the
water of the pool, then they would make the plash therefrom the herald of their presence.
And the water would be sanctified by the holy spirits, and whoever was beforehand of the
multitude of sick people in getting down, he would come up again disburdened of the
suffering that troubled him,, yet to one alone, him who first seized it, was the might of
healing meted out. But this too was a sign of the benefit of the law by the hands of
Angels, which extended to the one race of the Jews alone, and healed none other save they.
For from Dan so called even unto Beer-sheba, the commandments given by Moses were spoken,
ministered by Angels in Mount Sinai in the days afterwards marked out as the holy
Pentecost. For this reason, the water too of the pool used not to be troubled at any other
time, signifying therethrough the descent of the holy Angels thereon. The paralytic then
not having any one to thrust him into the water, with the disease that holds him, was
bewailing the want of healers, saying, I have no man, to wit to let him down into the
water. For he fully expected that Jesus would tell and advise him this.

9 Take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed
and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath. God-befitting the injunction, and
possessing clearest evidence of power and authority above man. For He prays not for the
loosing of his sickness for the patient, lest He too should seem to be as one of the holy
Prophets, but as the Lord of Powers He commandeth with authority that it be so, telling
him to go home rejoicing, to take his bed on his shoulders, to be a memento to the
beholders of the might of Him That had healed him. Forthwith the sick man does as is
bidden him, and by obedience and faith he gaineth to himself the thrice longed for grace.
But since in the foregoing we introduced him as the image and type of the multitude of the
Jews, who should be healed in the last times: come let us think of something again
harmonizing with the thoughts hereto pertaining, analagous to those before examined.

On the Sabbath day doth Christ heal the man, when healed He immediately enjoins him to
break through the custom of the law, inducing him to walk on the Sabbath and this laden
with his bed, although God clearly cries aloud by one of the holy Prophets, Neither carry
forth a burthen out of your house on the Sabbath day. And no one I suppose who is sober-
minded would say that the man was rendered a despiser or unruly to the Divine commands,
but that as in a type Christ was making known to the Jews, that they should be healed by
obedience and faith in the last times of the world (for this I think the Sabbath
signifies, being the last day of the week): but that having once received the healing
through faith, and having been re-modelled unto newness of life, it was necessary that the
oldness of the letter of the law should become of no effect, and that the typical worship
as it were in shadows and the vain observance of Jewish custom should be rejected. Hence
(I think) the blessed Paul too taking occasion of speech writes to them who after the
faith were returning again to the Law, I say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing; and again, Ye are severed from Christ, whosoever of you are
justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace.

10 The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day, it is not
lawful for thee to carry thy bed. Most seasonably (I think) doth He cry over them, Hear
now this O foolish people and heartless, which have eyes and see not. For what can be more
uninstructed than such people, or what greater in senselessness? For they do not even
admit into their mind that they ought to wonder at the Power of the Healer: but being
bitter reprovers, and skilled in this alone, they lay the charge of breaking the law about
him who had just and with difficulty recovered from a long disease, and foolishly bid him
lie down again, as though the honour due to the Sabbath were paid by having to be ill. 11,
12 He answered them, He That made me whole, He said unto me, Take up thy bed and walk.
They asked him therefore

The sentence is replete with, wisest meaning and repulsive of the stubbornness of the
Jews. For in that they say that it is not lawful on the sabbath day to take up his bed and
go home, devising an accusation of breaking the law against him that was healed, needs
does he bring against them a more resolved defence, saying that he had been ordered to
walk by Him, Who was manifested to him as the Giver of health, all but saying something of
this sort, Most worthy of honour (sirs) do I say that Ho is, even though He bid me violate
the honour of the sabbath, Who hath so great power and grace, as to drive away my disease.
For if excellence in these things belongeth not to every chance man, but will befit rather
God-befitting Power and Might, how (saith he) shall the worker of these things do wrong?
or how shall not He Who is possessed of God-befitting Power surely counsel what is well-
pleasing to God? The speech then has within itself some pungent meaning.

13, 14 What Man is He Which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk? But he that was
healed wist not Who it was: for Jesus had conveyed Himself away, a multitude being in the
place. Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him, Insatiable unto
bloodshed is the mind of the Jews. For they search out who it was who had commanded this,
with design to involve Him together with the miraculously healed (for he alone, it seems,
was like to be vexing them in respect of the Sabbath, who had but now escaped impassable
toils and snares, and had been drawn away from the very gates of death) but he could not
tell his Physician, although they make diligent enquiries, Christ having well and
economically concealed Himself, that He might escape the present heat of their anger. And
not as though He could suffer anything of necessity, unless He willed to suffer, doth He
practise flight: but making Himself an Example to us in this also.

Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come to thee. Being hid at
first economically, He appears again economically, observing the time fit for each. For it
was not possible that ought should be done by Him Who knew no sin, which should not really
have its fit reason. The reason then of His speaking to him He made a message for his
soul's health, saying that it behoved him to transgress no more, lest he be tormented by
worse evils than those past. Herein He teaches that not only does God treasure wp man's
transgressions unto the judgment to come, but manifoldly scourgeth those yet living in
their bodies, even before the great and notable day of Him. That shall judge all. But that
we are oftentimes smitten when we stumble and grieve God, the most wise Paul will testify,
crying, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep: for if we would
judge ourselves, we should not be judged: but when we are judged, we are chastened of the
Lord, thai we be not condemned with the world.

15 The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus Which had made him whole. He
makes Jesus known to the Jews, not that they by daring to do anything against Him should
be found to be blasphemers, but in order that, if they too should be willing to be healed
by Him, they might know the wondrous Physician. For observe how this was his aim. For he
does not come like one of the faultfinders, and say that it was Jesus Who had bidden him
walk on the Sabbath day, but Which had made him whole. But this was the part of one doing
nought save only making known his Physician. 16, 17 And therefore did the Jews persecute
Jesus and sought to slay Him, because He was doing these things on the sabbath day. But
Jesus answered them, The narrative does not herein contain the simple relation of the
madness of the Jews: for the Evangelist does not shew only that they persecute Him, but
why they blush not to do this, saying most emphatically, Because He was doing these things
on the sabbath day. For they persecute Him foolishly and blasphemously, as though the law
forbad to do good on the sabbath day, as though it were not lawful to pity and
compassionate the sick, as though it behoved to put off the law of love, the praise of
brotherly kindness, the grace of gentleness: and what of good things may one not shew that
the Jews did in manifold ways spurn, not knowing the aim of the Lawgiver respecting the
Sabbath, and making the observance of it most empty? For as Christ Himself somewhere said,
each one of them taketh his ox, or his sheep, and leadeth them away to watering, and that
a man on the sabbath day receiveth circumcision, that the law of Moses be not broken: and
then they are angry, because He made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day, by reason
of the exceeding stubbornness alike and undisciplinedness of their habits, not even to
brutes preferring him that is made in the Divine Image, but thinking that one ought to
pity a sheep on the sabbath day, and unblamed to free it from famine and thirst, yet that
they are open to the charge of transgressing the law to the last degree, who are gentle
and good to their neighbour on the sabbath?

But that we may see that they were beyond measure senseless, and therefore with justice
deserve to hear, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures; come let us taking somewhat from
the Divine Scriptures too shew clearly, that Jesus was long ago foredepicted as in a type
taking no account of the sabbath. The all-wise Moses then, having at a great age (as it is
written) departed from things of men and been removed to the mansions above, by the
judgment and decree of God That ruleth all, Joshua the son of Nun obtained and inherited
the command over Israel. When he therefore, having set in array heavy armed soldiers ten
thousand strong round about Jericho, was devising to take at length and overthrow it, he
arranged with the Levites to take the ark round about for six whole days, but on the
seventh day, that is, the Sabbath, he commanded the innumerable multitude of the host to
shout along with the trumpets, and thus the wall was thrown down, and they rushing in,
took the city, not observing the unseasonable rest of the Sabbath, nor refusing their
victory thereon, by reason of the law restraining them, nor yet did they then withstand
the generalship of Joshua, but wholly free from reproach did they keep the command of the
man. And herein is the type: but when the Truth came, that is Christ, Who destroyed and
overcame the corruption set up against man's nature by the devil, and is seen doing this
on the Sabbath, as in preface and commencement of action, in the case of the paralytic,
they foolishly take it ill, and condemn the obedience of their fathers, not suffering
nature to conquer on the sabbath day the despite done it by sickness, to such extent as to
be zealous in persecuting Jesus Who was working good on the sabbath day.

My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Christ is speaking, as it were, on the sabbath day
(for this the word Hitherto must necessarily signify, that the force of the idea may
receive its own fitting meaning) but the Jews, who were untutored, and knew not Who the
Only-Begotten is by Nature, but attributed to God the Father alone the appointing of the
Law through Moses, and asserted that we ought to obey Him Alone; these He attempts to
clearly convince, that He works all things together with the Father, and that, having the
Nature of Him Who begat Him in Himself, by reason of His not being Other than He, as far
as pertains to Sameness of Essence, He will never think ought else than as seemeth good to
Him Who begat Him. But as being of the Same Essence He will also will the same things, yea
rather being Himself the Living Will and Power of the Father, He worketh all things in all
with the Father.

In order then that He might repel the vain murmuring of the Jews and might shame them who
were persecuting Him on those grounds whereon they thought good to be angry, as though the
honour due to the sabbath were despised. He says, My Father worketh hitherto and I work.
For He all but wisheth to signify some such thing as this, If thou believest, O man, that
God, having created and compacted all things by His Command and Will ordereth the creation
on the sabbath day also, so that the sun riseth, rain-giving fountains are let loose, and
fruits spring from the earth, not refusing their increase by reason of the sabbath, the
fire works its own work, ministering to the necessities of man unforbidden: confess and
know of a surety that the Father worketh God-befitting operations on the sabbath also. Why
then (saith He) dost thou uninstructedly accuse Him through Whom He works all things? for
God the Father will work in no other way, save through His Power and Wisdom, the Son.
Therefore says He, And I work. He shames then with arguments ad absurdum the unbridled
mind of His persecutors, shewing that they do not so much oppose Himself, as speak against
the Father, to Whom Alone they were zealous to ascribe the honour of the Law, not yet
knowing the Son Who is of Him and through Him by Nature. For this reason does He call God
specially His own Father, leading them most skilfully to this most excellent and precious
lesson.

18 For this therefore did the Jews seek the more to kill Him, because He was not only
breaking the sabbath, but saying also that God was His Father, making Himself Equal with
God. The mind of the Jews is wound up unto cruelty, and whereby they ought to have been
healed, they are the more sick, that they may justly hear, How say ye, WE are wise? For
when they ought to have been softened in disposition, transformed by suitable reasoning
unto piety, they even devise slaughter against Him Who proves by His Deeds, that He hath
in no whit transgressed the Divine Law by healing a man on the sabbath. They weave in with
their wrath on account of the sabbath, the truth as a charge of blasphemy, snaring
themselves in the meshes of their own transgressions unto wrath indissoluble. For they
seemed to be pious in their distress that He being a Man, should say that God was His
Father. For they knew not yet that He Who was for our sakes made in the form of a servant,
is God the Word, the Life gushing forth from God the Father, that is, the Only-Begotten,
to Whom Alone God is rightly and truly inscribed and is Father, but to us by no means so:
for we are adopted, mounting up to excellency above nature through the will of Him That
honoured us, and gaining the title of gods and sons because of Christ That dwelleth in us
through the Holy Ghost. Looking therefore to the Flesh alone, and not acknowledging God
Who dwelleth in the Flesh, they endure not His springing up to measure beyond the nature
of Man, through His saying that God was His Father (for in saying, My Father, He would
with reason introduce this idea) but they deem that He Whose Father God properly is, must
be by Nature Equal with Him, in this alone conceiving rightly: for so it is, and no
otherwise. Since then the word introduces with it this meaning, they perverting the
upright word of truth are more angry.

Chapter VI. That the Son is not inferior to the Father either in power or in operation for
any work but is Equal in Might and Consubstantial with Him, as of Him and that by Nature.

19 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Verily verily I say unto you, the Son can
do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth,
these doeth also the Son likewise. What we have spoken of above, this again He interprets
in another way, from all quarters snaring the hearers unto finding of the truth. For the
word which was not received at first, by reason of the weakness of them that could not
understand, He re-forms in another way, and going through the same thoughts introduceth it
manifoldly. For this too is the work of the virtue that befits a teacher, namely not to
make his word rapid and speeding beyond the knowledge of the pupils, but carefully wrought
and diversely fashioned and that by frequent change of expression strips off the
difficulties in the things under consideration. Mingling then human with Divine, and
forming one discourse of both, He as it were gently sinks the honour befitting the Only-
Begotten, and raises the nature of man; as being at once Lord and reckoned among servants,
He says, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what
things soever He doeth, these doeth also the Son likewise. For in that He is able to do
without distinction the works of God the Father and to work alike with Him That begat Him,
He testifieth the identity of His Essence. For things which have the same nature with one
another, will work alike: but those whose mode of being is diverse, their mode of working
too will be in all respects not the same. Therefore as Very God of Very God the Father, He
says that He can do these things equally with Him; but that He may appear not only Equal
in Power to the Father, but likeminded in all things, and having in all things the Will
One with Him, He saith that He can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do.

Just as though He should say distinctly to those who aro trying to persecute Him for
healing a man on the Sabbath day, Ye deem the honour of the Sabbath broken, but I would
not have done this, had I not seen My Father do the like; for He worketh for the good
order of the world on the Sabbath too, even though through Me. It is then impossible
(saith He) that I, the Son of Him by Nature, should not wholly in all things work and will
the works of the Father, not as though I received from without by being taught the
exemplar of action, or were called by a deliberate motion to will the same with the
Father, but by the laws of Uncreated Nature I mount up to Equal Counsel and Action with
God the Father. For the being able to do nothing of Himself, is excellently well defined
herein. And thus I deem that piously minded we ought to bring into captivity every thought
to the obedience of Christ, as it is written.

But perchance the opposer of the truth will disbelieve, and will make what is said the
food so to say of his own ill counsel saying: "If the Son were Equal to the Father,
attributing to Him no Preeminence as of necessity, by reason of the inferiority of His Own
Nature, what induced Him so unconcealedly to say, that He could do nothing of Himself but
what He seeth the Father do? For clearly (saith he) does He herein confess that He can do
nothing at all of Himself, as knowing Him that is the Better and superior to Himself. But
do thou again refute our argument." What then is to be said to these things by us? Bold
unto blasphemy is the enemy of Christ and drunken with folly he perceives it not. For one
must, most excellent sir, test accurately the force of what has been said, and not dash
offhand to reasonings springing from unlearning. For to what kind of equality with the
Father dost thou deem it right to bring down the Son, by reason of His saying that He can
do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do? Is it as not having Equality in
Power that He says these things, although from the very passage under consideration one
may see that the Son is Equal in Power with the Father, rather than inferior in God-
befitting Might? For plainly He does not say, The Son can do nothing of Himself, except He
receive Power of the Father (for this would be the part of one really weak) but, but what
He seeth the Father do. But that by the sense of seeing, we are not usually called to be
powerfnl, but to look at something, I suppose no one will dispute. The Son then in saying
that He looketh on the works of His Father doth not shew Himself impotent, but rather a
zealous Imitator, or Beholder: and how, shall be more accurately spoken of in what
follows.

But that through His exact and likest working, I mean in all things, He is shewn to have
Equality in Power, Himself will clearly teach below, adding as of His Father, for what
things soever He doeth, these (saith He) doeth also the Son likewise. How then is He
inferior, Who is Eminent in equal workings with God the Father? for will the offspring of
fire work ought different from fire, any change being seen in its work? how could it be
so? How then will the Son work in like manner with the Father, if by reason of having
inferiority He come short of equal Might with Him? And these things were taken from the
words at present under comment. But let us consider, going through other considerations
also, whether the Nature of the Son admits any law of inferiority to that of the Father.
Let the consideration of Power also be before us. Do they confess that the Son is God of
God by Nature and verilyand of the actual Essence of the Father; or do they say indeed
that He is God, but blasphemously add, that He is outside of the Essence of the Father? If
then they say that He is not of the Essence of the Father, He will neither be God by
Nature, nor Very Son. For that which is not of God by nature, neither ought it at all to
be conceived of as by nature God, nor yet Son if it be not begotten of the Essence of the
Father, but they are bringing in privily to us some bastard and new god. If they do not
say this, blushing at the absurdity that is in their own doctrines, but will grant that
the Only-Begotten is truly of the Father, and is God by Nature and Verily: how will He be
inferior to the Father, or how powerless to ought, and this not accuse the Essence of Him
Who begat Him?

For if it be possible that He Who is by Nature God should at all be impotent, what is to
hinder the Father from being in the same case, if the Divine and Ineffable Nature once has
the power of being so, and is already so manifested in the Son, according to their
account? Hence then neither will the Divinity be Impassible, nor will It remain in
sameness and Bliss wholly Unchangeable. But who (tell me) will endure them that hold such
opinions? Who when the Scripture crieth aloud that the Son is the Lord of Hosts, will not
shudder to say, that He must needs be strengthened, and is imperfect in that which of
right is His alone with the Father and Holy Ghost? But our opponent will say again, "We
say, that the Father surpasses the Son in this. For the One is the First Beginner of
works, as having Perfection both in Power and in the knowledge of all things: but the Son
becomes first a spectator then a worker by receiving into Himself the imitation of the
Father's working, in order that through the similarity of works, He too might be thought
to be God. For this He teacheth us, saying that He can do nothing of Himself but what He
seeth the Father do."

What art thou saying, thou all-daring? doth the Son receive into Himself the types of the
Father's Working, that thereby He may be thought to be God? By learning then will He be
God, not by Nature. As in us is (it may be) knowledge and art, so is in Him the Dignity,
and He is rather an Artificer of the works of Deity than Very God: yet is He (I suppose)
altogether other than the art that is in Him, though it be God-befitting. Him then that
has passed forth of the boundaries of the Godhead, and has his glory in the art alone, how
do angels in Heaven worship Him, we too worship without blame, albeit the Holy Scripture
admonisheth us that we ought not to serve any apart from Him Who is truly God? for it
says, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. Yet the holy
multitude of Angels in particular erred not from what is befitting, but they worship the
Son and serve Him with us, acknowledging Him to be God by Nature, and not by learning, as
those babbling say: for they perceive not (it seems) into how great absurdities they will
thence fall. For in the first place the Son will admit change and variation as from the
less to the greater, albeit Himself saith through the Prophet, Behold, behold I am, and
change not. The Psalmist too will surely lie in the spirit, crying out to the Son, But
Thou art the Same. For He awaiteth, as those say, the Father's working at something, as a
Guide and Teacher, that He may see and imitate. Then how will not such an one appear to
mount up from ignorance of certain things unto knowledge thereof, and to turn from worse
to better, if we reckon that knowledge of any thing-good is better than not knowing it?

Next, what additional absurdity is herein beheld? Let them tell us who introduce God as an
Instructer rather than a Father, Doth the Son await the sight of His Father's works in
ignorance of them, or having most perfect knowledge of them? If then they say that He
awaits though He knows them, they clearly shew that He is doing something very
superfluous, and the Father practising a most idle thing: for the One, as though ignorant
looks at what He knows perfectly, the Other attempts to teach One Who knows: and to whom
is it not evident, that such things incur the charge of the extremest absurdity? But
perchance they will not say this; but will go over to the opposite alternative. For they
will affirm that He awaiteth of necessity the Father working in order to learn by seeing.
How then doth He know all things before they were? or how will He be true saying of
Himself, Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Shall ought be hidden
from Me? But how is it not absurd andunlearned to believe that the Spirit searcheth and
knoweth the deep things of God, and to suppose that the Giver of the Spirit is in
ignorance of the works of the Father and of His own Spirit, so as to come short in
knowledge? For will not the Son at length lose His being Wisdom, if He be wholly ignorant
and receive by learning?

for He will be a recipient of wisdom, rather than Wisdom Itself by Nature. For wisdom is
that which maketh wise, not that which is formed to become wise, just as light too is that
which enlighteneth, not that which is formed to receive light. Therefore is He again other
than the wisdom which is in Him, and in the first place He is not Simple, but compounded
of two: next besides this, He will also lose the being God, I mean God by Nature and
Essentially. For the Divine Nature endureth not the being taught by any at all, nor the
duplication of composition, seeing It hath as Its Proper Good the being both Simple and
All-Perfection. And if the Son be not God by Nature, how doth He both work and do things
befitting God Alone? will they say that it suffices for Him unto God-befitting Power, only
to see the Father working, and by the mere sight does He attain to being by Nature God,
and to being able to do such things as He That sheweth Him doth? There is therefore
nothing to hinder, but that many others too should be manifested to us as gods, if the
Father be willing to shew them too the mode of His works, and the excellence of the
Father's Essence will consist in learning something over and above.

For He that was taught (as those say) is found to have mounted up to the dignity of the
God-head by Nature, saying, I and My Father are One, He that hath seen Me hath seen the
Father. Let them weigh then how great a crowd of blasphemies is heaped up by them, from
their choosing so to think, and let them think truly of the Son as it is written. For
neither by contemplation of what is performed by the Father, nor yet by having Him as
antecedent to Himself in actions, is the Son a Doer or Wonder-worker, and by reason hereof
God: but because a certain law of Nature carries Him to the Exact Likeness of Him who
begat Him, even though it shine forth and is manifested through the unceasing likeness of
Their Works. But setting before us again, if you please, the verse, and testing it with
more diligent scrutiny, let us consider accurately, what is the force of the words and let
us now see how we must think with piety. Therefore, Verily verily I say unto you, The Son
can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He
doeth, these doeth also the Son likewise.

Thou seest how through the exact likeness too in the works, He sheweth Himself like in all
things to the Father, that thereby He may be shewn to be Heir of His Essence also. For in
that He must of necessity and incontrovertibly be conceived of as being God by Nature, Who
hath Equal working with God the Father, the Saviour says thus. But let no one be offended,
when He says economical, that He can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father
do. For in that He was now arrayed in the form of the servant and made Man by being united
to flesh, He did not make His discourse free, nor altogether let loose unto God-befitting
boldness, but used rather at times by an economy such discourse as befits alike God and
Man. For He was really both in the same. And this is one true word, but I think one ought
again to explain what is before us in another way too, and to apply more keenly to the
accurate meaning of the passage. The Son (it says) can do nothing of Himself but what He
seeth the Father do. The word cannot, or impossibility, is predicated of certain things,
or is applied to certain of things that are. For this being predicated we say is not
indicative at all of necessity, nor of weakness; but often denotes the stability of
natures and the immoveable condition of essences, in respect of what each thing mentioned
either is or has been, and of what it can effect by nature and without change. But let our
argument, if you please go through demonstration also. When for instance a man says that
he cannot carry a piece of wood, immeasurable perhaps and heavy, he predicates his innate
weakness: but when another says, I being by nature a reasonable man, and born of a father
by nature reasonable, cannot do anything my own and of myself, which I do not see
belonging to the nature of my parent; the words "I cannot" express the stability of
essence, and its inability to change into any thing but what it is. For (says he) I cannot
of myself be not a reasonable creature, strengthened by increases accruing to me by
nature: for I do not see the power of doing this in the nature of my father.

In this way then you may hear Christ saying, The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He
seeth the Father do. For do not (saith He) blame the works of the Son: for He beholding,
as in His Proper Thoughts or Natural Motions, the Essence of Him That begat Him; what
things He seeth That Nature befittingly work, these He doeth and none other, not being
able to suffer ought contrary to His Nature, by reason of His being of It. Thus, the
Nature of the Father hath the Will to compassionate: the Son seeing this inherent therein,
is Compassionate as being of Him by Nature, not being able to be Other than what It is.
For He hath of the Father, as Essence, so the good things too of the Essence, simply that
is and uncompound as God, therefore He wisely subjoins to the former words, For what
things soever He doeth, these doeth also the Son likewise: in these words collecting, so
to say, the whole meaning of His being able to do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth
the Father do. But by considering the cause why the Son says these things, you will apply
your mind more accurately to the things spoken by us.

When then He on the sabbath day was compassionating the paralytic, the Jews began trying
to persecute Him: but Christ shames them, shewing that Grod the Father hath mercy on the
sabbath day. For He did not think He ought to hinder what things were tending to our
salvation. And indeed He said at the beginning, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
But when they of their great ill-counsel shewed that they were vexed at these things, He
subjoins again The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do: for what
things soever He doeth, these doeth also the Son likewise. For since (saith He) the Father
refuseth not to have mercy on the sabbath day, I, seeing that He is altogether full of
compassion, am therefore Myself too wholly compassionate, not able to cut out anew in
Myself the Essence of My Father, through not appearing and being such as He is by Nature.
For I wholly work what is His, as being of Him.

But the saying that the Father is antecedent in the work, is not free from the deepest
unlearning. For how should He ever of Himself and alone begin, Who has the Son as the
operative Power for all things, Eternally with Him, the Exponent of His Will as to ought
and of His motion to operation in respect of ought. But if they uninstructedly assert that
He awaits the SeparateOperation of the Father for each several work, in order to imitate
equally, let them shew us that the Father wrought anything separately and of Himself, or
what paralytic He having first healed, hath given the deed as a pattern to His Son. 20 For
the Father loveth the Son Those who were heedlessly blaspheming against Him by reason of
the sabbath, Christ convicts of being foolishly exasperated to empty anger, making most
clear proof of the matter by saying that He is loved by His Father. For if the Father
wholly loveth the Son, it is plain that He loves Him not as grieving Him, but rather as
gladdening Him in what He does and works. Vainly then do they persecute Him Who refuseth
not to shew mercy on the sabbath, and hereby again are they found opposing the decrees of
God the Father. For they think they ought to hate Him Whom He loves, but it is altogether
(I suppose) manifest, that He would never have loved Him if He had gone contrary to the
Will of His Father, and been accustomed to do of Himself and Alone whatsoever Himself
willed. But since He justly loves, He approves, it is plain, and agrees to the breaking of
the sabbath, and shews that it has nothing in respect of which God the Lord of the Law
might reasonably be angry.

and sheweth Him all things that Himself doeth; Needs does He subjoin this too to the
preceding; and wherefore, I will say. Fathers who are among us, sometimes overcome by
natural affection, bear with their sons grieving them, and seeing them attempt things
against their judgment, they often suffer it. For vehement is the yearning love implanted
in them in respect of their children persuading them to overcome all littleness of
soultowards them. But not thus (saith He) does God the Father love the Son, for He cannot
do anything which He too does not work by Nature, but as having One Essence with Him, He
is called by certain Physical laws, so to say, to identical Will and Power. The Son then
(saith He) worketh nothing contrary to what is pleasing or fitting to the Father, nor does
He vaunt Himself in the love of the Father, as though a lover of novelty in His works and
unbridled, but whatsoever things He sees Him doing, as in conception, all these He
performeth restrained by Identity of Essence from falling aside in ought that is befitting
God. For He hath no part with change in ought, or variableness: for He remaineth the Same
unceasingly, as the Psalmist says. The Father again sheweth the Son what He Himself doeth,
not as though setting before Him things depicted on a tablet, or teaching Him as though
ignorant (for He knoweth all things as God):

but depicting Himself wholly in the Nature of His Offspring, and shewing in Him His Own
Natural Properties in order that from what Properties Himself is and is manifested, He may
know of what kind and Who He is by nature That begat Him. Therefore Christ says, that no
man knoweth Who the Son is but the Father, and Who the Father is, but the Son. For the
accurate knowledge of each is in Both, not by learning, but by Nature. And God the Father
seeth the Son in Himself, the Son again seeth the Father in Himself. Therefore He saith, I
am in the Father and, the Father in Me. But "to see" and "to be seen" must here be
conceived of after a Divine sort. And greater works than these will He shew Him, that YE
may marvel. Above the blessed Evangelist says, The Jews were seeking to kill Jesus,
because He was not only breaking the sabbath, but saying also that God was His Father,
making Himself Equal with God. He therefore put down the accusation respecting the
sabbath, by shewing that the Father Himself worked on the sabbath day, and expending many
words thereupon: and endeavours to teach them that He is in Equality with the Father, even
when made Man for our sakes (for this was what the argument yet lacked), and therefore
does He say And greater works than these will He shew Him that YE may marvel. And what
again does He will to shew us hereby? The paralytic (it says) has been healed, which had
an infirmity thirty and eight years. And marvellous indeed the Power of Him That healed
him, God-befitting exceedingly the Authority. This so great Wonderworker, no one (I
suppose) in his senses would blame for saying that He is God, and since He is Son, Equal
in all things to Him That begat Him. But since ye (He says) imagining things most wicked
and foolish, are offended because of this mortal Body, ye must needs learn that My
Authority and Power stop not here: for ye shall be, even though ye will it not, spectators
of greater wonders, to wit of the resurrection of the dead, and yet more shall ye be
astonished, seeing Power and Glory befitting God, in Me Whom now ye charge with blasphemy
and are not ashamed to persecute, for merely saying, I am the Son of God.

But how God the Father shews His Works to the Son, we have already said at much length. 21
For as the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth them, so the Son too quickeneth whom He
will. See again in these words clear proof of His Equality. For He That worketh equally in
respect of the reviving of the dead, how can He have inferiority in ought? or how shall He
be of another nature and alien to the Father Who is radiant with the Same Properties? For
the Power of quickening, which is in the Father alike and the Son, is a Property of the
Divine Essence. But the Father doth not again separately and of Himself quicken some, the
Son some separately and apart: for the Son having in Himself by Nature the Father, the
Father doth all things and worketh all things through the Son. But since the Father hath
the Power of quickening in His Own Nature, as also Himself too, He attributes the Power of
quickening the dead as though accruing to each separately.

Chapter VII. That nought of God-befitting Dignities or Excellences is in the Son, by
participation, or from without.

22 For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son. He introduceth another God-befitting and marvellous thing, in many ways persuading
them that He is God by Nature and Verily. For to what other would it befit to judge the
world, save Him Alone Who is God over all. Whom too the Divine Scriptures call to this,
saying in one place, Arise, O God, judge the earth, in another again, For God is the
Judge, He putteth down one and setteth up another. But He says that judgment has been
given Him by the Father, not as being without authority hereto, but economically as Man,
teaching that all things are more suitably referred to the Divine Nature, whereto Himself
too being not external, in that He is Word and God, hath inherently authority over all;
but in that He is made Man, to whom it is said, What hast thou that thou didst not
receive, He fittingly acknowledges that He received it.

To these things again one of our opponents will say, "Lo, the Son evidently declares that
He hath received judgement of the Father; but He receives (it is plain) aa not having. How
then will not He That gives with Authority be greater and of Superior Nature to Him Who
must needs receive?" What then do we say to these things? Our prearranged argument has
been, I think, not unskilfully managed, introducing a consideration specially befitting
the time, to wit of the Incarnation, and most accordant with the economy of the Flesh,
when He was called a servant, when He humbled Himself, made in our likeness. But since it
seemeth good to thee haughtily to despise the simpler doctrines, and to make more critical
examination of them, come then, opposing thy objections, let us first say, Not altogether,
nor of necessity, sir, doth he that is said to give anything, impart it to the recipient
as though he had it not, nor yet is the giver always greater than the receiver. For what
wilt thou do, when thou seest the holy Psalmist saying in the Spirit, Give glory to God?
Shall we consider that God is in need of glory, or that we who are commanded to offer Him
this, are on this account greater than the Creator? But not even thou wilt dare to say
this, who shunnest not the fear of blasphemies. For full of glory is the Godhead, even
though It receive it not from us. For He who receives as honour, what He hath of Own, will
never bo thought inferior to those who offer Him glory as a gift. One may often see that
he who has received anything is not inferior to the giver, and that the Father is not
therefore of Superior Nature to His offspring, because He hath committed to Him all
judgment.

Next we must consider this too. To judge or to give judgment, are rather operations and
acts conceived as properties of essences than themselves truly essences. For we in giving
judgment do something, being in ourselveswhat we are. But if we grant that judging or
giving judgment is of the nature of an essence, how must we not needs grant, even against
our wills, that some cannot exist at all, except as judges, and that their being wholly
ceases together with the termination of the judgment? But so to think, is most absurd.
Judgment then is an operation, and nothing else. What then hath the Father committed to
the Son? No accession from His Own Nature, in committing all judgment to Him, but rather
an operation in respect of them that are judged. How then will He herein be greater, or of
Superior Nature, by having added anything which was not in the Son Who saith, All things
that the Father hath are Mine?

How then He must be conceived of as giving, hear now. As God the Father, having the Power
to create, createth all things through the Son, as through His own Power and Might: so
having the Power too to judge, He will work this too through the Son, as His Own
Righteousness. As though it were said that fire too yielded up burning to the operation
that is of itself by nature, the fact taking this direction: so piously interpreting, Hath
committed, shall we escape the snare of the devil. But if they persist in shamelessly
asserting that glory is added to Him of the Father, through His being manifested Judge of
the earth, let them teach us, how He is any longer to be considered Lord of glory, Who in
the last times was crowned with the honours hereunto pertaining.

Chapter VIII. That the Son being God and of God by Nature, and the Exact Image of Him Who
begat Him, hath equal honour and glory with Him.

23 That all should honour the Son even as they honour the Father: he that honoureth not
the Son honoureth not the Father Which sent Him. A cause and reason of the things already
enumerated, is now evident, viz., that the Son ought to be honoured in Equality and
likeness with the Father. For recapitulating a little, and carried back to a recollection
of the preceding, you will view accurately the force of the passage. He said then that God
was His Father, making Himself Equal with God; then again He began shewing that He was of
Equal strength and skill, saying, For what things soever He doeth, these doeth also the
Son likewise. That He is both Life and Life-giving by Nature, as is He too Who begat Him,
He shewed plainly, adding, For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, so
the Son too quick-eneth whom He will. But that He will be also Judge of all, the Father in
all things co-approving and consenting, He declared, saying, For neither doth the Father
judge any man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. What then is the cause of
these things? what induced the Only-Begotten to say all this? That all men (He saith)
should honour the Son even as they honour the Father. For if He hath all things whatever
the Father hath, as far as appertains to God-befitting Dignity, how is it not fitting that
He to Whom nothing is lacking to Identity of essence should be crowned with equal honours
with Him? What then do they say to this too who pervert all equity, as saith the Prophet
Isaiah?

"If (he says) by reason of its being said, That all men should honour the Son even as they
honour the Father, ye suppose that one ought to magnify the Son with equal honours with
the Father, ye know not that ye are stepping far away from the truth. For the word As does
not altogether introduce equality of acts, in respect of those things it is affixed to,
but often marks out a kind of likeness, just as (he says) the Saviour counsels, saying, Be
ye therefore merciful as your Father also which is in Heaven is merciful. Shall we then be
as merciful as the Father, on account of the as? And again Christ says to His Father of
His disciples: Thou hast loved them, AS Thou hast loved Me. But we will not grant that the
disciples are loved just as the Son, on account of the as. Why then dost thou multiply
words, and distort what is said into blasphemy, though it introduces no obligation on the
hearers to honour the Son in equal measure with the Father?"

What then is our answer to these things? With bitter words do the fighters against God bay
at us, but without are dogs, as Paul saith, without are evil workers, without the right
faith are the concision. For we are sons of the truth and children of the light. Therefore
we will glorify the Only-Begotten together with God the Father, not with any difference,
but in equality of honour and glory, as God of God, and Light of Light, and Life of Life.
And overmuch enquiry into what is to be received as faith, is not without hazard:
nevertheless we must test the force of the As, lest our opponents be overwise in their own
conceits. When therefore As is applied to things unlike in their nature, it does not
wholly introduce absolute equality, but rather likeness and resemblance, as ye yourselves
acknowledged above; but when it is applied to things in all respects like to one another,
it shews equality in all things and similitude and whatever else is found to have the same
force with these. Just as if I say, Bright is the sun in Heaven, bright too is silver
which is of the earth, yet is the nature of the things mentioned diverse. Let any of the
rich, of the earth, be supposed to say to his household servants, Let the silver shine as
the sun.

In this case we very justly say that earthly matter attains not to equal brightness with
the sun, but to a certain likeness and resemblance, although the word As be used of it.
But let Peter and John (suppose) of the holy disciples be brought forward, who both in
respect of nature and of piety towards God, fail not of an accurate likeness one to
another, let the As be applied, some one saying of them, as here, Let John be honoured by
all, even as Peter, will the As here be powerless, so that equal honour ought not to be
paid to both? But I do not suppose that any one will say such a thing: for he will see
that there is nothing to prevent it. According to this analogy of idea, when the As is
applied to the Father and the Son, why should we shrink from crowning Both with equal
honours? For He having considered before, as God, things to come, and having carefully
viewed the envious opposition of thine unlearning hath brought in the As, not bare and
bereft of the aid befitting it, but having strengthened it beforehand with convenient
proofs, and shewn afore that He is God by Nature (for He made God His Father): having
again fore-shewn that He is both God the Creator and of a truth Life, and having before
introduced Himself, altogether glorying (so to say) in the Attributes of God the Father,
----He afterwards seasonably subjoins That all men should honour the Son even as they
honour the Father too. Then what objection still appears, what is there to hinder, that
He, in Whom are Essentially the Properties and excellencies of the Father, should attain
to an equal degree of honour? for we shall be found honouring the very Nature of God the
Father, full well beaming forth in the Son. Wherefore He proceeds, He that honoureth not
the Son honoureth not the Father which sent Him. For the charge of dishonouring the Son,
and the force of blasphemy against Him, will mount up unto none other more truly than the
Father Himself, Who put forth the Son as it were from the Fount of His Own Nature, even
though He be seen throughout the whole Holy Scriptures as everlastingly with Him.

"Yea (saith the opponent) let the charge from dishonouring the Son go to whatsoever you
please, or rather let it reach even unto God the Father Himself. For He will be angry, and
that with reason, yet not wholly so, as though His Very Nature were insulted in the Son,
according to our just now carefully finished argument, but since He is His Image and
Impress, formed most excellently after His Divine and Ineffable Essence, He is with reason
angry, and will wholly transfer the wrong to Himself. For it were indeed most absurd, that
he who insulted the Divine Impresses, should not surely pay the penalty of his sin against
the Archetype. Just as he who has in-suited the images of earthly kings, is punished as
having indeed transgressed against the ruler himself. And in like manner shall we find it
decreed by God in respect of ourselves also: for Whoso (saith He) sheddeth man's blood,
for his blood shall he be poured forth: because in the Image of God He made man. Seest
thou then hereby very clearly (saith he) that if the Image be wronged, and not altogether
the Divine Nature, God the Father deems it right to be angry? In this way then let that
which is said by Christ be conceived of and adapted, He that honoureth not the Son,
neither doth he honour the Father."

Shall then the Only Begotten be classed with us as external to the Essence of the Father?
how then will He yet be God by Nature, if He altogether slip out of the bounds of the
Godhead, situate in some nature of his own and of other sort than that wherein the Father
is? and we do wrong, it seems, in bringing into one count of Godhead, the order of the
Holy Trinity. We ought, we ought at length to worship the Father as God, to impart some
glory of Their Own to the Son and the Spirit, severing them as it were into different
natures, and defining severally to Each the mode of His Existence. Yet do the Divine
Scriptures declare unto us One God, classing with the Father the Son and the Spirit, so
that through Their Essential and exact sameness the Holy Trinity is brought unto one count
of Godhead. The Only-Begotten is not then alien from the Nature of Him who begat Him, but
neither will He be a whit conceived of as Son in truth, if He beamed not forth from the
Essence of the Father (for this and no other is the definition and mode of true son ship
in all) but if there be no Son, God's being Father will be wholly taken away too. How then
will Paul be true in saying of Him, Of Whom every family in Heaven and earth is named?

For if He have not begotten of Himself in God-befitting manner the Son, how shall the
beginning of Fatherhood be in Him, going through in imitation to those who are in Heaven
and earth? But God is in truth Father: the Only-Begotten therefore is by Nature Son, and
is of a surety within the bounds of the Divinity. For God will be begotten of God even as
man (for example) of man, and the Nature of God the Father, Which transcends all things,
will not err by bearing fruit not befitting It. But since some blasphemously and foolishly
say, that it is not the Nature of God the Father That is insulted in the Son, when He does
not receive due honour from any, but that He is angry reasonably and rightly, at His Own
Image being dishonoured in Him; we must ask them in what sense they would have the Son be
and be called the Image of the Father. Yea rather let us forestalling their account,
determine beforehand the Nature of the Image, according to legitimate reasoning: for so
will the result of our enquiries be clear and more distinct. Therefore one and the first
mode of image is that of sameness of nature in properties exactly alike, as Abel of Adam,
or Isaac of Abraham: the second again is that consisting in likeness of impress, and
accurate impression of form, as the King's delineation in wood, or made in any other way,
most excellently and skilfully, as respects him. Another image again is taken in respect
of habits and manners, and conversation and inclination to either good or bad, as for
instance it may be said that the well-doer is like Paul, him that is not so like Cain (for
the being equally good or bad, works likeness with either, and with reason confers it)
Another form of image is, that of dignity and honour and glory and excellence, as when one
for instance succeeds another in a command, and does all things with the authority which
belongs to and becomes him. An image in another sense, is in respect of any either quality
or quantity of a thing, and its outline and proportion: for we must speak briefly.

Let then the most critical investigators of the Divine Image teach us, whether they think
one ought to attribute to the Only-Begotten the Essential and Natural Likeness, and thus
say that the Only-Begotten Word proceeding from the Father is an Image of Him in the same
sense as Abel is of Adam, who retained in himself the whole nature of his parent, and bore
the count of human nature all-complete? or will they be vexed at this, compelled to
confess the Son truly God of God by Nature, and turning aside according to their custom to
fight against the truth, advance to the second kind of image, which is conceived to exist
in mere form, impress and outline? But I suppose they will shrink from saying this. For no
one, even if he be a very prater, will suppose that the Godhead can be estimated in
respect of size, or circumscribed by outline, or meted by impress, or that the Unembodied
will wholly undergo what belongs to bodies. Do they say then that He is conformed to Him
in respect of manners and habits and will, and are they not ashamed to dress Him in this
image? for how is He yet to be conceived of as God by Nature, Who has Likeness to Him in
will only, but has another Being separately of Himself? For they will surely acknowledge
that He subsists. Then what is there in Him more than in the creature?

For shall we not believe that the angels themselves hasten to perform the Divine Will, who
are by nature other than God? But what, when this is conceived of as belonging to us too?
for does not the Only-Begotten teach us foolishly to jump at things above our nature, and
to aim at impossibilities, saying, Be ye merciful, as your Father also which is in Heaven
is merciful? For this were undoubtedly to say that we ought to gain the likeness of the
Father by identity of will. And Paul too was an imitator of Christ, of the (as they
babbling say) Image of the Father in will only. But they will shift their ground (I
suppose) from these miserable conceptions, and as though thinking something greater and
better, will surely say this, "The Only-Begotten is the Image of God the Father, in
respect of identity of will, in respect of God-befitting Dignity and Glory and Power, in
respect of Operation in creation and working miracles, in respect of reigning and ruling
over all, in respect of judging and being worshipped by angels and men and in short by all
creation. By all these He shewing us the Father in Himself, says that He is not of His
Person, but is the Impress of His Person.

Therefore as we said just now, the Son is none of these by nature, but is altogether
separate from all of them according at least to your most foolish reasoning, and is
neither Very God, nor Son, nor King, nor Lord, nor Creator, nor Mighty, nor in respect of
His own "Will is He by Nature Good: but in boasts solely and only of what is God-befitting
is He seen. And as is the application of tints to paintings on tablets, beautifying them
by the variety to the eye, but having nothing true: so as to the Son too, the beauty of
the Excellencies of God the Father decks Him around with bare names only, but is as it
were applied from without like certain tints: yea rather the Divine Nature is outlined in
Him, and appears in bare type. Next, how will ye not be shewn to be fighting outright with
all the holy Scriptures, that ye may with justice hear, Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised
in heart and ears, YE are always resisting the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do YE
too, for when do they not call the Son Very God, or when do they bear Him forth from the
Essence of His Father? which of them has dared to say that He is by Nature neither Creator
nor King nor Almighty nor to be worshipped? For the Divine Psalmist says as to the Only-
Begotten Himself, Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever: Thomas again the most wise
disciple in like wise calls Him God alike and Lord. He is called Almighty and Creator by
every voice of saint, and as having not according to you the Dignity from without, but as
being by Nature what He is said to be, and therefore is He worshipped both by the holy
Angels and by us, albeit the Divine Scripture says that we ought to worship none other,
save the Lord God Alone.

If then they hold that the God-befitting Dignity in Him is acquired and given, and think
that they ought to worship such an one, let them know that they are worshipping the
creature rather than the Creator, and making out to themselves a new and fresh God, rather
than acknowledging Him Who is really so by Nature. But if while they say that the Son is
external to the Essence of God the Father, they yet acknowledge Him to be Son and Very God
and King and Lord and Creator, and to have Essentially in Himself the Properties and
Excellencies of the Father, let them see whither there is risk that the end of those who
thus think will be. For nothing at all will be found of sure faith in the Divine Nature,
since the nature of things originate also is now capable of being whatever It is conceived
to be. For it has been proved according to the most feeble reasoning of our opponents,
that the Only-Begotten not being of the Divine Nature, hath yet truly in Himself Its
Excellencies. Who will not shudder at the mere hearing the blasphemy of the doctrines? For
all things are now overturned, when the Nature That is above all things descendeth so as
to be classed with things originate, and the creation itself contrary to reason springs up
to the measure above it, and not designed for it.

Therefore let us swimming away from the absurdity of such doctrines, as from a ship
sinking in the sea, hasten to the Truth, as to a secure and unruffled haven, and let us
ackowledge the Son to be the Image of God the Father, not plaistered over so to say with
perishable honours, nor adorned merely with God-befitting titles, but Essentially Exact
according to the likeness of His Father, and unalterably being by Nature That which He
That begat Him is conceived to be, to wit Very God of God in truth, Almighty, Creator,
Glorified, Good, to be worshipped, and whatever may be added to the things enumerated as
befitting God. For then shewing Him to be Like in all things to God the Father, we shall
also shew Him true, in saying that if any will not honour the Son, neither doth he honour
the Father Which hath sent Him: for as to this our enquiry and the test of the things just
now investigated had its origin.

24 Verily verily I say unto you, he that heareth My Word and believeth on Him That sent
Me, hath everlasting Life, and cometh not into condemnation, but is passed from death unto
life. Having now proved sufficiently by the foregoing, that the miserable Jews sin not
against the Son only, by daring to find fault with the things which He says or does among
them in His teaching, but do also ignorantly transgress against the Father Himself, and
having as far as pertains to the force of what has been said, wrapped about their over-
confidence with fear, and persuaded them to live more religiously in hope of things to
come, He at length snares them to obedience. And not unskilfully again did He frame His
speech to this end. For since He knew that the Jews were still diseased, and yet offended
concerning Him, He again brings back their faith to the Person of God the Father, not as
excluding Himself, but as honoured in the Father too by reason of Identity of Essence. For
He affirms that they who believe shall not only be partakers of eternal life, but also
shall escape the peril of the condemnation, being justified, that is: holding forth fear
mixed with hope. For thus could He make His discourse more efficacious and more
demonstrative to the hearers.

25 Verily verily I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear
the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Having said that believers
shall pass from death to life, He introduces Himself as Performer of the promise, and
Accomplisher of the whole thing, partly hinting to the Jews, that marvellous in truth is
the Power shewn in the case of the paralytic, but that the Son will be revealed as a
Worker of things yet more glorious, driving away from the bodies of men not only sickness
and the infirmities of diseases, but also overthrowing death and the heavily-pressing
corruption (for this was what was said a little before, The Father loveth the Son and
sheweth Him all things that Himself doeth and greater works than these will He shew Him,
that YE may marvel; for the greater wonder is shewn in the raising of the dead), partly
also preparing the way for that which would probably in no slight degree affright the
hearers. For He plainly declares that He will raise the dead, and will bring the creature
to judgment, that through the expectation of one day being brought before Him and giving
account of everything, they might be found more backward in their daring to persecute Him,
and might receive more zealously the word of teaching and guidance.

To these things then the aim of the chapter looks and tends: but we must now explain the
words. The common account then is (as it seems) that the time will come, when the dead
shall hear the Voice of Him That raiseth them: and they suppose that it is now too no less
present, either as when Lazarus for instance is to hear the Voice of the Saviour, or as
saying that the dead are those not yet called through faith unto eternal life, who will
surely attain unto it, by having received the doctrine of the Saviour. And this method of
considering it does indeed preserve a plausible appearance, but accuracy not at all.
Wherefore ruminating again the force of the words, we will affix a more suitable sense,
and thus open the reading: Verily verily I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is,
when the dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God; the hour again that is, when they
that hear shall live. By the words then in the beginning, He means the time of the
resurrection, wherein He teaches through the word of the Judge that they that sleep shall
rise again to answer for their life in the world, that as I said before, devising the fear
thence arising as a bridle, He might persuade them to live full excellently and wisely: by
the closing words He shews that the due time of believing is now come, but also says that
everlasting life will be the reward of obedience: all but declaring, Ye shall all come to
judgement, sirs, that is at the time of the Resurrection, but if it seem bitter to you to
be punished, and to undergo endless penalties at the hand of the offended Judge, suffer
not the time of obedience to pass by, but laying hold of it while yet present, haste ye to
attain to everlasting life.

26, 27 For as the Father hath life in Himself, so gave He to the Son too to have life in
Himself, and gave Him authority to execute judgment also because He is the Son of Man.
Observe again the economy in these words, that thou mayest marvel at the form of
expression and not, by falling into offence thereat from ignorance, bring upon thyself
perdition. For the Only-Begotten, being Man in respect of the nature of His Body, and seen
as one of us while yet upon the earth with flesh, manifoldly instructing the Jews in
matters pertaining to salvation, clothed Himself with the glory of two God-befitting
things. For He clearly affirmed, that He would both raise the dead, and set them at His
Judgement-seat to be judged. But it was extremely likely that the hearers would be vexed
at this, accusing Him with reason, because He said that God was His Father, making Himself
equal with God. Having mingled therefore with God-befitting Authority and Splendour
language befitting the human nature, He beguiles the weight of their wrath, saying more
modestly and lowlily than was necessary, For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath
He given to the Son too to have life in Himself. Marvel not (saith He) if I, Who am now as
you, and am seen as a Man, promise to raise the dead, and threaten to bring them to
judgement: the Father hath given Me Power to quicken, He hath given Me to judge with
authority. But when He had hereby healed the readily-slipping ear of the Jews, He bestows
zealous care for the profit too of what follows, and immediately explaining why He says
that He hath received it, He alleges that human nature hath nothing of itself, saying,
Because He is the Son of Man.

For that the Only Begotten is also Life by Nature, and not a partaker of life from
another, and so quickeneth as doth the Father, I think it superfluous to say now, since no
small discourse was expended hereupon in the beginning of the book, upon the words, In Him
was Life. 28, 29 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in
the graves shall hear His Voice and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the
resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of doom. He
signifies by these words the time of the resurrection of all, when, as the Divine Paul
wrote to us, The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a summons, with the voice of
the Archangel, with the trump of God, to judge the world in righteousness, and render to
every man according to his works. He leads therefore by repetition of the same things the
most unlearned understanding of the Jews, to be able clearly to understand, that He will
be a Worker of greater deeds than those in which the paralytic was concerned, and that He
will be revealed as a Judge of the world: and by profitably contrasting the healing of one
sick person with the resurrection of the dead, He shews that greater and more noteworthy
is the operation that undoes death and destroys the corruption of all, and reasonably and
of necessity says, in respect of the lesser miracle, Marvel not at this. And let us not at
all suppose that by these words He means to find fault with the glory of His own works, or
to enjoin the hearers that they ought not to hold worthy of wonder, those things whereat
one may reasonably wonder, but He wishes those who were astonished at that to know and
believe that the subject of wonder as yet was small. For He raiseth by a word and God-
befitting Operation not only the sick from little diseases, but those also who have been
already submerged by death and overcome by invincible corruption.

And hence introducing the greater, He says, The hour is coming in which all that are in
their graves shall hear His Voice. For He who by a Word brought into being things that
were not, how should He not be able to win back into being that which was already created?
For thus each will be the effect of the same Operation, and the glorious production of one
Authority. And profitably does He subjoin that they shall come forth of their graves, they
that were holden of base deeds and that lived in wickedness to undergo endless punishment,
the illustrious in virtue to receive the reward of their religiousness, eternal life: at
once (as we said above) introducing Himself as the Dispenser of what belongs to each, in
these words of His; and persuading them, either from fear of suffering dreadful
punishments, to forego evil and to hasten to elect to live more soberly, or pricked with
desire after some sort for eternal life, make more zealous and eager haste after good.

Chapter IX. That the Son is in nothing inferior to God the Father, but is of Equal Might
in Operation unto all things as God of God.

30 I can of Mine Own Self do nothing: as I hear, I judge, and My Judgment is just, because
1 seek not Mine Own Will, but the Will of the Father Which sent Me. Give more exact heed
again to the things said, and receive the force of its thought with intelligence. For the
Jews not knowing the deep Mystery of the economy of flesh, nor yet acknowledging the Word
of God indwelling in the Temple of the Virgin, were often excited by zeal, mistaken and
not according to knowledge, as Paul saith, to savageness of manners and fierce anger: and
indeed were attempting to stone Him, for that He, being a Man, was making Himself God, and
again because He said that God was His Father, making Himself Equal with God. But since
they were thus hard of understanding and utterly unable to endure God-befitting words, but
both thought and spake meanly of Him, the Saviour by an economy acts the child with them,
and made His explanation a mixed one, neither wholly foregoing words befitting God, nor
altogether rejecting human language: but having said something worthy of His Divine
Authority, He forthwith represses the untutored mind of the hearers, by bringing in
something human also; and again having said something human by reason of the economy, He
suffers not what belongs to Him to be seen in mean estate only, shewing often by His
Superhuman Might and Words that He is by Nature God. Some such contrivance will you find
now too in the passage at present before us. For what did He say before?

For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, so the Son too quickeneth whom
He will, next again, For the hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves
shall hear His Voice; and besides, that they shall also come forth to be judged and to
receive their reward according to their works. But He That saith He can quicken whom He
will, and in like manner as the Father: how shall He not be conceived of as clothed with
Might befitting God? He Who openly says that He will be Judge of all, how shall He not
with justice terrify those who deem that He is yet bare Man? For it was like that they
being Hebrews and instructed in the Sacred Writings, should not be entirely ignorant that
God should be Judge of the world, since they too sang often, Arise, O God, judge the
earth, and again, For God is the Judge.

Since then He knew that the ignorant people of the Jews were vexed at these things, He
rids them of their accustomed anger by saying in more human language, I can of Mine Own
self do nothing: as I hear, I judge. As far then as one can say, taking the words
superficially, He derides the understanding of the Jews. For the form of expression gives
the idea of a sort of weakness, and of authority not altogether free; but it is not so in
truth, since the Son being Equal in all things to the Father, hath by Nature the same
Operation and Authority in respect to all things. But He saith that He can do nothing of
Himself, but as He heareth, so He judgeth: in another way again shewing Himself Equal in
Mind and Power to God the Father. For neither will the Father be conceived of as doing
anything without the Son, Alone and by Himself, seeing He hath Him as His Might and Power
(therefore all things were made by Him, and without Him was not made any one thing) nor
will the Son again do ought of Himself, the Father not co-with Him. Therefore He saith
also, Of Myself I do nothing; but the Father That dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. And
we shall not suppose that the Son is strengthened by the Father, as though weak, and again
that authority over all things is given Him: for then would He be no longer God by Nature,
as having the glory of the Godhead bestowed; but neither would the Father Himself still
exist in unimpaired excellency of good things, if He had the Word, the Impress of His
Nature, such as to require Power and Authority from another. For a giver of the things
spoken of will be sought for analogously for the Image and Archetype, and thus in short
our argument will go forth into boundless controversy, and will run out into the deep sea
of blasphemy. But since the Son being of the Essence of the Father takes to Himself by
Nature all the Properties of Him who begat Him, and Essentially attains to one Godhead
with Him, by reason of Identity of Nature, He is in the Father, and hath again the Father
in Himself: wherefore He frequently, Unblamed and Truly, attributes to the Father the
Power of His Own Works, not excluding Himself from the power of doing them but attributing
all things to the Operation of the One Godhead: for One is the Godhead in the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Ghost.

And that the Son is not inferior to the Father either in Power or Operation unto ought,
but is Like in all things and of Equal Might, has been demonstrated by us elsewhere, on
the words, The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do: for what
things soever He doeth, these doeth the Son too likewise. But since I think it just and
becoming, to display the most devoted zeal in Divine doctrines; come let us after the
custom of sailors on the sea wind back anew (as a cable) the whole argument of the
chapter. For in this way one may see, that the Son does not accuse His Own Nature by
saying that He can do nothing of Himself, but rather exposes the folly of the Jews, and
plainly shews that they trample on the law of Moses. For in that to the words, I can do
nothing of Myself, is immediately subjoined, As I hear, I judge, it frees the Son from all
reproach of not being able to act of His Own Power: rather it shews clearly that He is in
all things Filial and Consentient with Him Who begat Him. For if as though impotent He
were borrowing His Power of the Father, as not having sufficient of Himself: how ought He
not rather to say, I can of Mine Own Self do nothing, I receive the power of my Father?

But now as He does not say this, but rather adds to the being able to do nothing of
Himself, that He so judges as He hears, it is evident that not in respect of weakness of
operation as to ought, does He put that He cannot, but by reason of impossibility of
transgressing in anything the Will of the Father. For since One Godhead is conceived of in
the Father and the Son, the Will too (I suppose) will be surely the Same; and neither in
the Father, nor yet in the Son or the Holy Ghost will the Divine Nature be conceived of as
at variance with Itself; but whatsoever seemeth good to the Father (for example), this is
the Will of the Whole Godhead. Needs therefore does the Son introduce Himself as co-
approving and consenting to the Father in whatever seemeth good to Him, explaining that He
cannot do anything which is not altogether according to the Mind of the Father, for this
is the meaning of Of Myself . Just as if He should say that He cannot commit sin, He would
not rightly seem to any to incur the charge of weakness, but rather to set forth a
wondrous and God-befitting Property of His Own Nature (for He gives to understand that He
is Immoveable and Unchangeable): so when He acknowledges that He can do nothing of
Himself, we shall rather be awestruck as seeing Unchangeableness the fruit of the
Unchangeable Nature, than unseasonably account the not being able to be a mark of
weakness.

Let these things be said by us conformably to our own ability, and let the lover of
learning search out for better: but we will not shrink from interpreting the saying in
another way too, lowering our manner of speech a little from the bounds of the Godhead and
the Excellence of the Only-Begotten: and since the Son truly was and was called Man,
translating the force of the passage to the economy with Flesh, and shewing that what
follows is akin and connected with what preceded. Therefore He clearly testified that all
that are in the graves shall hear His Voice, and that they shall come forth to be judged.
When He has once begun on the subject of His judging the world, He not only promises to be
a righteous Judge at that time, in which He says the Resurrection of the dead will take
place, but also declares that even now He judges rightly and justly of matters in this
life. What was the question and of what the discourse, hear. For our sakes was He born of
a woman: for as Paul saith, He taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham,
wherefore it behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren. But since He was
made Man and in servant's form, He the Law-giver as God and Lord is made under the Law
also. He speaks then sometimes as under the Law, sometimes again as above the Law, and
hath undisputed authority for both.

But He is discoursing now with the Jews as Law-keeper and Man, as not able to transgress
the commands ordered from above, nor venturing to do ought of His Own Mind, which does not
agree with the Divine Law. Wherefore He says, I can of Mine own self do nothing; as I
hear, I judge. By testifying to Himself that He can do nothing of Himself, which is not
wholly in accordance with the Law, and that He judges and gives sentence in matters,
according as He hears, to wit by declaration of the Law, He exposes the unbelief of the
Jews, and lays bare their headstrong habit. For this too the words I can of Mine own self
do nothing, well hint at, as contrasting with, YE recklessly transgress the commandments
given you, ye were bold to do all things of yourselves, fearlessly, and in every matter
are ye zealous to give judgments not consonant to the Divine decrees. For ye teach for
doctrines the commandments of men, and make your own will a law.

What then is the aim of this way of speaking, or how He introduces Himself as judging
justly, and they not, shall be told next. He had healed the paralytic on the Sabbath day,
He compassionated a man who had spent long time in sickness, shewing forth right and good
judgment upon him. For it was right to pity the sick man even on the sabbath day, and by
no means to shut up His compassion from reverence for the sabbath day, practising a most
vain piety. As the Father too works even on the sabbath day in regard of His economy
towards His creatures, and that surely through the Son, so doth Himself also. For neither
did He think that a man who needed compassion on the sabbath day ought to be deprived of
it, by reason of the Sabbath, since He knew that the Son of Man was Lord of the sabbath.
For not man was made for the sabbath, but the sabbath for man. Therefore righteous herein
and good is the judgment of the Saviour, not restraining by reason of the sabbath His
Loving-Kindness to the prostrate, but that which as God He knows how to perform (for the
Divine Nature is the Fountain of Goodness), this He did even on the sabbath day: but the
judgment of the Jews upon Him in that they were vexed on account of the sabbath, and
therefore desired to kill Him Who had done them no wrong, how is not this exceedingly
dissonant to the Divine Laws (for it is written, The innocent and righteous slay thou not)
and the invention rather of their cruelty, and not of the holy Scriptures?

Understand then that Jesus says with a kind of emphasis to those who were angry at His
deeds of good and found fault with His holy judgments, following only their own
imaginations, and so to speak defining as law that which seemed to them to be right even
though it be contrary to the Law:---- I can of Mine Own Self do nothing, i. e., I do all
things according to the Law set forth by Moses, I endure not to do anything of Myself, as
I hear, I judge. For what willeth the Law? Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, for
the judgment is God's. why then (saith He) are ye angry at Me because I have made a man
every whit whole on the sabbath day, and condemn not Moses who decreed that children
should be circumcised even on the sabbath. Judge not according to the appearance, but
judge righteous judgment. If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the Law
of Moses should not be broken, thus without due cause are ye vexed at seeing a man every
whit healed on the sabbath day? I therefore judged justly, but ye by no means so, for ye
do all things of yourselves. But I can of Mine Own Self do nothing; as I hear, I judge,
and My Judgment is just, because I seek not Mine Own Will, as ye do, but the Will of the
Father Which sent Me.

What manner of sending this is, and the mode of the being sent, we having before spoken of
at length, will refrain from speaking any more thereof. But we must observe for profit's
sake that He says that the Law is the Will of God the Father. 31, 32 If I bear witness of
Myself, My witness is not true: there is another that beareth witness of Me, and I know
that the witness which He witnesseth of Me is true. The most wise Solomon, gathering
together the things in which a man may very reasonably glory, and shew his manner of life
to be enviable, and placing them before those who are apt to learn, says, The righteous
man is his own accuser in the opening of the trial, and again, Let thy neighbour praise
thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips. For a thing truly
burdensome and most intolerable to the hearers, is it that some like not to be praised by
the voice of others, but attest unrestrainedly their own most noble and excellent deeds.
But with reason is such language distrusted; for we are wont to be invited by certain (so
to speak) natural and necessary drawings of self-love, readily to ascribe to ourselves
nought that is ill, but ever to put about us and not altogether truthfully, the things
whereby any may be thought well-behaved and good.

When then our Lord Jesus Christ adjudged to Himself that He judgeth righteous judgments,
saying openly that He could do nothing of Himself, but that He makes the Will of the
Father His Rule in all His Actions, and in saying this, introduced Himself as witness to
Himself, although it was true, yet of necessity considering the sophistry of the
Pharisees, and what they would say in their folly (for they knew not that He is God by
Nature): He anticipates them in putting it forward, and says, Ye following the practice of
the common people, and not advancing beyond surmise befitting Jews, will surely say, THOU
bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not true; but ye shall hear this in reply (saith
He), I endure yet with your blasphemies, I am by no means exceeding angry with you
belching forth your words from the ignorance most dear to you, I grant you for argument's
sake, that even this hath been well said by you: Be it so, ye reject My Voice, there is
Another That beareth witness of Me. He here indicates God the Father Which is in heaven
Who hath now in divers manners attested the Verity of the Essence of His Own Son; and He
says that He knows that His witness is True shewing that His Own Judgement too is in fact
most trustworthy and true.

For lest by admitting as it were that He said things untrue of Himself, He should give
room for malice, and a loophole against Himself to them who are accustomed to think
otherwise, He having ceded of necessity to what is becoming and customary, that one ought
not altogether to credit as true him who praises and approves himself, returns again as
God to His due position and says that He knows that the witness of the Father is true, all
bat teaching this; I being Very God know Myself (says Ho), and the Father will say nothing
of favour concerning Me. For I am Such by Nature, as He, being True, will declare Me. In
the former 13 part then there was an assent 14 so to say of condescension, and the words
hypothetic 15 rather than true; in His saying that He knows that the witness of the Father
is true, is the demonstration of God-befitting credibility.

But it must be observed that in respect of His Own Person the Father is Other than the
Son, and is not, as some uninstructed heretics have imagined, introduced as the Son-
Father. 33 YE have sent unto John, and he hath borne witness unto the Truth. As we have
just affirmed that it is disgraceful, and not without share of the uttermost folly, that
any one should be seen as an admirer of his own excellencies, even though he should by
reason of exceeding virtue escape untruth: so it is an absurdity cognate (so to say) and
akin to this, that any not called upon to bear witness to any thing, should of their own
accord appear before the judges or those who wish to enquire. For such an one would seem
(and that justly) not altogether to be anxious to tell the truth, but rather to be over-
eager to give his testimony, to make known not what the nature of the fact is, but rather
his own account of it. Most skilfully then, yea rather as God, doth our Lord Jesus Christ,
overturning beforehand the charge of the Pharisees in regard to this, say, YE have sent
unto John: not of his own accord (says He) does the Baptist come to give his testimony to
Me, he is clear from any charge of this: he gave free testimony; YE sent to ask John, and
he hath borne witness unto the truth. For when he was asked by them who were sent to him,
whether he were the Christ, he confessed and denied not, but confessed I am not the
Christ, but am sent before Him. He hath then borne witness to the Truth, for Christ is the
Truth.

34 But I receive not testimony from man, but these things I say, that YE might be saved.
He doth not reject the word of John as useless, nor declare the witness of the truth to be
of none effect (for He would with justice have seemed to have wrought absurdity against
Himself, by unreasonably dismissing from credence him whom He sent to cry. Prepare ye the
way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God) but as striving with the unbounded
disobedience of the Jews He proceeds to what is better and of more weight, saying that not
of necessity is testimony to Himself from voice of man admitted, but rather giving them
more glorious proof from the Authority befitting Him Who is by Nature God, and from the
Excellence of the Divine Miracles. For a person will sometimes reject the voice of man, as
not true, even though he be haply enrolled among the saints. Which some not scrupling to
do, used to oppose the words of the Prophets, crying out. Speak unto us other things and
declare unto us another deceit: and yet besides these, certain of them of Jerusalem, or of
the land of Judah, who had escaped into Egypt: to wit, Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and
Johanan the son of Kareah and all the proud men, as it is written, openly disbelieving the
prophecies of Jeremiah, said, Thou speakest falsely, the Lord sent thee not to say to us,
Go not into Egypt. But demonstration through miracles, what gainsaying will it admit of;
and the being borne witness to by the Excellencies of God the Father, what mode of
stubbornness will it yet grant to the faultfinders? And verily Nicodemus (he was one of
their rulers, and ranked among those in authority) gave incontrovertible testimony from
His miracles, saying, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a Teacher come from God, for no man can
do these miracles that THOU doest, except God be with Him.

Since then to disbelieve even the holy Baptist himself who brought testimony as far as
words go, was not too much for the malice of the Jews, He says again, in a sort of irony,
The blessed Baptist hath borne witness to the truth, even though questioned by you, but
since nothing has been left untried by you, and ye have foolhardily accustomed yourselves
to launch forth into all manner of reviling, ye have, it is likely, rejected his voice.
And since this too seems to you to be right, be it so: I am haply persuaded, I agree with
you, I will put aside for your sakes the voice of John too, and with you except against
his testimony: I have the Father from above bearing testimony. But teaching again that the
expression implies assent for argument's sake, He profitably subjoined, But these things I
say that YE might be saved, that is, I used this manner of speech to you, not that
thetruth is so, but for argument's sake, that by every means YE may be saved.

And here our second book shall end. The second Book of Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria on S.
John is finished.


COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V
===========================================

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V continued

BOOK III

Chapter I. A critical enquiry why the blessed Baptist is called by Christ not only the
lamp, but burning and shining.

Having but now with toil stayed our pen on the second book, and swum through the deep and
wide sea of Divine contemplations, thinking so to reach the end, as a harbour, and all but
mooring our skiff on the mainland, we see the commencement of another ocean, to wit; our
course on the sequel. Which that we should accomplish with all diligence, both the nature
of the thing shames us into, and that said by some one persuades us no less unto, For
glorious is the fruit of good labours. Come then, let us, mounting up unto a courageous
purpose of mind, commit our affairs to the guidance of the good and loving God: let us,
spreading forth like a sail, the expanse of our understanding and embracing the grace of
the Spirit as the sound of a fair wind from the stern, run out into deep in-search. For it
is Christ Which maketh a way in the sea and a path in the water. Our second book then
ended with, But I receive not testimony from man; but these things I say, that YE might be
saved. Let us begin the third, joining in order what follows concerning the holy Baptist,
of whom Christ says;

35 He was the lamp burning and shining; and YE were willing for a season to rejoice in his
light. He likens the holy Baptist to a lamp, in that as far as appertains to the measure
of man, he shone forth before His Coming, yet not with his own light: for not its own is
the light in the lamp, but from without and bestowed and added: thus will you see in the
saints also the illumination that is from Christ in the Spirit. Wherefore they both
thinking and acting most wisely do themselves confess out of their own mouth, Of His
fulness have all WE received. For the Only-Begotten is by Nature Light, in that from Light
too He beamed forth, I mean, from the Essence of the Father: but the creation partakes of
it, and whatever is endowed with power of reasoning and thinking, is as a vessel most
excellently fashioned by God the Most Excellent Artificer of all things, with capacity for
being filled with Divine Light.

The blessed Baptist then is a lamp according to the above-given explanation. The Saviour
saying this economically calls the foolish Pharisees to remembrance of the Voice of God
the Father, saying of Him, I prepared a lamp for My Christ. Very profitably and of
necessity does Christ now subjoin these things to those already aforesaid. For. since,
cutting off all occasion of unbelief from the Jews, and from all sides compelling them to
the duty of believing on Him, He thought good to agree with them in not receiving his
testimony, saying, I receive not testimony from man, that they might not suppose that the
Lord was really and truly so minded respecting His forerunner, as the form of the words
gives,----profitably to His present purpose, does He introduce him, not as Himself saying
anything of him, but as proclaimed by the Voice of the Father. For He thought that from
reverence certainly to God the Father, the gainsayer must either be ashamed, or shew
himself now more nakedly fighting against God, as unrestrainedly going against the very
words of God the Father.

He then (saith He) was the lamp, and YE were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
For it behoved Him not only to shew that the Pharisees easily went astray from what is
right, and had by the great impiety of their ways thrust from them the will to believe,
but also to convict them of being fickle, and by no means accustomed to cleave to the
desire of good things, but after having barely tasted, and approved in words only those
whom they thought to be holy, they were not ashamed quickly to go over to the contrary
habit. For this I think is the meaning of their being willing for a season to rejoice in
his light. For at the commencement they admired the holy Baptist, as an ascetic, as a
lover of God, as an example of all piety, but they who honour the miracle again insult it,
not enduring to hear, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God.
For this they are clearly found doing through unbelief.

And now (as I think) having kept the well-trodden and commonly-used method of
interpretation of the passage, we have put forth the meaning of it, according to our
power: but since the Word of the Saviour extendeth to deep meanings, and evidently all but
necessitateth the taking hold of more subtil conceptions, not merely signifying that John
was a lamp, but also burning and shining, we deem it needful to apply ourselves more
keenly to the force of the words and so track out the beauty of the truth. The sentence
itself shall again be brought forward. He was the Lamp, He says. It would have been
sufficient by this alone to have pointed out the holy Baptist, so that the hearers should
go back to the thought of the prophecy concerning Him, which runs thus, I prepared a lamp
for My Christ. But since He adds to the word lamp, the burning and shining, it is thence
manifest that He carries the hearer back not merely to the prophet's voice, but also to
some pre-figuring of the Law, fore-representing, as in figure and shadow, the torch-
bearing of John, which he well performed by his testimony to Christ the Lord. He again
convicts the Pharisees wise in their own conceits, who were conversant in the Law of Moses
and that constantly, of being ignorant, and rather seeming to be wise than really having
understanding of the Law. This then is the whole aim of the discourse: but I think we
ought, bringing forward the Divine oracle itself, incontrovertibly to shew that the
blessed Baptist is not simply a lamp, but one burning and shining.

When then God was ordaining the arrangements of the holy tabernacle, after the completion
of the ten curtains, He saith to the hierophant Moses, And do thou command the children of
Israel and let them bring thee olive oil refined pure beaten to burn for a light, that the
lamp burn always in the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is upon the
testament, Aaron and his sons shall burn it from evening to morning before the LORD: a
statute for ever unto your generations on the behalf of the children of Israel: and take
thou unto thee Aaron thy brother and his sons with him from among the children of Israel
to minister unto Me. Thus far the oracle of God, we must now proceed to the interpretation
of it as far as may be. The oil without lees and pure, seems to signify the most pure and
undefiled Nature of the Holy Ghost, Which penetrating us incomprehensibly like oil,
nourishes and preserves and increases the illumination in the soul, as in a lamp. And thus
we believe that the Divine Baptist also shed forth the light of his testimony concerning
our Saviour, having received the power of being able to illuminate from no other source
than through the spiritual oil, which mightily and effectually availeth to kindle within
us the Divine Light, to which also the Saviour Himself darkly alluded, saying, I am come
to cast fire on the earth and what will I, if it be already kindled?

The blessed Baptist then was again as in type the lamp, that was ever burning and shining
in the tabernacle of testimony: and its shining in the tabernacle of testimony shews full
well that his illumination was received in the churches, and will not be outside the holy
and Divine Tabernacle of the Saviour. But the lamp being seen without the vail, seems to
shew that he will bring in a simpler introductory illumination, saying, Repent, for the
Kingdom of Heaven hath drawn nigh; but of the things hidden within the vail, to wit, the
mysteries of our Saviour, he revealeth nothing at all. For he baptized not unto
participation of the Holy Ghost, nor did his illumination introduce within the vail: for
it was in the outer tabernacle, while yet standing, according to the mouth of Paul. But
when it says, that Aaron and his sons shall burn it from evening to morning before the
Lord: a statute for ever unto your generations, I think we ought to understand it after
this sort. Aaron and his sons signify those who execute the priest's office in the
Churches in their time, that is to say, the teachers therein and ministers of the Divine
Altars. These are commanded to keep the spiritual lamp, that is, John, ever bright, for
this is the meaning of, They shall burn it from evening to morning. For the whole period
during which the light of the lamp was to appear, is the space of night, whereby is
signified the term of the present life.

For by light we understand the life to come. But the lamp burns or is kept bright, by
always making its illumination perceptible to those who believe in Christ, and by
testifying through the mouth of the Priests then being that it is true in saying such
things of Christ. That God may teach thee, that by this He was pourtraying the fore-
messenger of the Saviour, He straightway subjoins the election of the Priests. You will
attain again to the whole scope of the passage by ruminating on some such idea as this,
and not amiss, as seems to me. On the completion of the tabernacle the ordering of the
lamp is introduced, and immediately after, the appointment and function of the priests.
For at the completion of the law and the Prophets, shone forth the voice of the forerunner
crying in the wilderness (as it is written) Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight
the paths of our God; immediately after whom is the ordination and manifestation of the
holy Apostles by Christ. For the Lord chose out twelve, whom also He named Apostles.

Our consideration of the lamp being herein completed, let us look again at the Voice of
the Saviour. He was (saith He) the burning and shining lamp, and YE were willing for a
season to rejoice in his light. He blames in the Pharisees their habit of mind unlearned
and hard to be brought to obedience and convicts them again of being sick with
incomparable ill-instructedness and not able to understand even what they professed to
know, and very far indeed from an accurate knowledge of the law, wholly ignorant of what
the Lawgiver was pourtraying afore in outline through Moses. For by saying that he was the
burning and shining lamp, He shames (it is like) those who did not yet understand that
which was long ago too limned out in figures of the Law: by saying, and YE were willing
for a season to rejoice in his light, He introduceth them again as ever preferring their
own will to the Divine Decree, and accustomed to follow only whom they would. For whereas
the lawgiver (says He) commanded the lamp always to shine and be burning, YE were willing
for it to shine not always, but for a season only, that is for the very briefest period.
For ye at first marvelling quenched (as far as you are concerned) the light of the lamp,
most unreasonably accusing him that was sent from God, and not only yourselves refusing to
be baptized, but also forbidding him from baptizing others.

For ye sent to him, saying, Why baptizest thou then, that is, why dost thou enlighten to
repentance and the knowledge of Christ? The Saviour then brought a charge alike of folly
and transgression of the Law upon the senseless Scribes and Pharisees, contending with
them in behalf of the words of John. This I think that the blessed Luke also
understanding, most excellently declares and cries aloud against their folly, saying, And
all the people that heard, that is, the words of the Saviour, justified God, being
baptized with the baptism of John: but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of
God against themselves, being not baptized of him. 36,37 But I have greater witness than
that of John; for the works which the Father hath given Me to finish, the very works that
I do, bear witness of Me that the Father hath sent Me: and the Father Which sent Me HE
hath borne witness of Me. Even though he was the lamp (saith He) both depicted by the
books of the law, and proclaimed afore by the voice of the holy Prophets, that he should
one day appear, beaming before the true Light, and declaring among you, that ye ought to
put in good order the way of your Lord and God: yet since he haply seemeth to you not
trustworthy, albeit so great in virtue, by reason of your innate unruly and most absurd
folly, I proceed now to what is greater, against which probably ye will say nothing,
ashamed before the very beauty of truth even against your own will. For I am no longer
receiving glory by the words and judgements of men, nor shall I deem it needful to collect
testimonies to Myself from bare words, but I will commit My affairs to witness more
credible and far greater than these, and from the very magnificence of My deeds I make
manifest that I am God by Nature, and of God the Father, and I nothing wrong Mine Own
laws, trans-ordering them to whatsoever I will, and trans-elementing things which were
darkly spoken to those of old, from the grossness of the letter to spiritual
contemplation.

But let him that loves learning consider again that the Saviour by saying that He is well
witnessed to by His works as to His being by Nature God, teaches clearly, that it was not
possible that God-befitting Operation and Power should be in all exactitude in any one,
unless he too were by Nature God. For He is testified of by His works, in no other way (I
suppose) save this. For if He is seen a Finisher 1 of the works of His Father, and
whatever things are more suited to Him Alone, these He too accomplisheth by His Own Power:
how shall it not be clear to every one, that He hath obtained the Same Nature with Him,
and Radiant with the Properties of the Father, as being of Him, hath Equal Power and
Operation with Him? Yet He says He hath received the Works from Him, either by reason of
the garb of human nature and servant's form speaking more lowlily that was needful, and
this economically, or extolling by the title of gift the good Pleasure and Approval of the
Father, in regard to all His wondrous Miracles. For thus does He affirm that He was also
sent, in that He emptied Himself, as it is written, of His unalloyed God-befitting Dignity
by reason of His Love for us. For He humbled Himself, and we shall find the lowliness of
this His humbling Himself in no other ways than in those whereby He sometimes speaks as
Man. To this agreeth that which is said by the Psalmist of Him in human wise for our
sakes, I was set a King by Him upon Sion His Holy Mountain declaring the Law of the Lord.
For He That is King for ever with the Father, Co-enthroned and Co-seated, as God with God
who begat Him, says that He has been ordained King and Lord, saying that what as God He
had, He received when He was made Man to whom reigning is not inherent by nature, but both
the title and reality of lordship are wholly from without.

Chapter II. That the Son is the Image of God the Father, wherein also is an exposure of
the Jews as not understanding the words darkly uttered by Moses.

38 Ye have neither heard His Voice at any time nor seen His Form and ye have not His Word
abiding in you, for Whom HE hath sent, Him YE believe not. One may see that not simple is
the arrangement of ideas poured forth upon the passage before under consideration, but
that it is a swarm of hidden contemplations, which very easily escapes the mind of
uncritical hearers, and haply admits of being seen by those only who investigate more
keenly. For what was it (will one perchance say) that induced Jesus, when He was saying
that He was borne witness to by His God-befitting Operation, to come to something most
exceeding remote as though it belonged to the subject? I mean that the Pharisees had
neither at any time heard the Voice of God the Father nor seen His Form nor yet had His
Word abiding in them. And I will agree, and so I suppose will every one else, that not
without some cause is this their difficulty. What sense then we shall adapt to the passage
before us, and what again we, on all sides holding by the truth, searching shall provide
ourselves with, by the Operation and grace of the Spirit I will endeavour to tell forth.

It is the custom of the Saviour Christ, when often making useful discourses with the
unskilled Pharisees, to gaze into the depths of their heart, and to consider in God-
befitting manner the reasonings still dumbly revolved and stirred up in their mind, and to
these in particular to direct both His answers and words and exposures, and He does not
altogether keep the thread of His own words unpassed, but to what they are counselling and
imagining in themselves, to this He keenly replies, and by it shews that He is by Nature
God, as knowing what lies in the depth and searching the hearts and reins. If any one
will, let him receive the most clear demonstration hereof, from the other Evangelists, I
mean Luke and his companions. It is written then in the Gospels, that there were once
gathered together from all the region round about Judea, Pharisees and doctors of the law.
And, behold (he says) men bearing on a bed a man which was taken with a palsy, and they
were seeking to bring him in and to lay him before him; and when they found not by what
way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let
him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when He saw
their faith, He said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the
Pharisees began to reason saying, Who is This which speak-eth blasphemies?

who can forgive sins but One, God? But when Jesus perceived (it says) their thoughts, He
answering said unto them, What are ye reasoning in your hearts? whether is easier to say,
Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise and walk? Seest thou how He not waiting their
answer or murmuring in utterance of words, answers as God their inward thoughts? You will
find again another example too, fashioned after this same manner. For thus says the
blessed Luke, And it came to pass also on another sabbath that He entered into the
Synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. And the
Scribes and Pharisees watched Him whether He would heal on the sabbath day, that they
might find an accusation against Him: but He knew (it says) their thoughts and said to the
man which had the withered hand, Rise up and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and
stood forth. And Jesus said unto them, I will ask you, Is it lawful on the sabbath day to
do good or to do evil? Seest thou again evidently herein, that He framed His words as
looking into the very heart of those who were foolishly trying to accuse Him? Something of
this sort again in the passage too before us we will suppose to have been seen by the
Saviour in the hearts of the Pharisees.

But you will see that the discourse does not spurn the right line, or order of the
subject, if you do not shrink from going over again each of those things which have been
already said. This great long discourse with them took its beginning about the man that
was healed on the Sabbath Day, and by manifold devices and arguments was Christ
endeavouring to persuade those who were waywardly vexed at the healing on the sabbath,
that it is lawful even to have compassion on the sabbath, and to do good to all, and
besides, that the Law made the rest of the sabbath a shadow of a most note-worthy reality;
moreover having in their judgement broken the honour of the sabbath, and hereby specially
transgressed the law, He was affirming and that very strongly, that He had been sent by
God the Father, and further was clearly telling them that He was borne witness unto by
Him, and was well-pleasing to Him in all that He did. To these things (as far at least as
the evidence of the arguments goes) the Pharisees again are reasoning with themselves (as
waiting on the writings of the law, and ever holding out as a pretext the commands through
Moses, and saying they had read) What does this Man say? how will God the Father be well-
pleased with one who breaks the Law? when has He testified, or what judgement did He give
concerning Him? For we know from the Mosaic writings that God descended upon Mount Sinai,
and His Face was seen by the fathers, and His Voice (say they) was heard: He spake to the
whole Synagogue, and commanded them to keep the Sabbath Day, clearly commanding thus.
Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work,
but on the seventh day is a holy sabbath to the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any
work. And none other (say they) heard we saying these things: the multitude of the fathers
was ear-witness to the Voice from God, and after them the Word of God was in us: But who
is This?

When He perceived that they were thus imagining, He exposes them as keenly ignorant,
saying, Ye have neither heard His Voice at any time nor seen His Form, and ye have not His
Word abiding in you, for whom HE sent, Him YE believe not. For the things done in a type
at that time, and why the descent of God upon Mount Sinai was figured out to them, these
things they knowing nothing of, received them not as images of spiritual realities, but
were imagining that the Divine Nature could actually be seen with the eyes of the body,
and believed that He used a bodily voice. But that the Word of the Saviour to them was
true, and that they neither at any time heard the Voice of God the Father, nor had any one
with bodily vision seen His Form, that is, the Word in all things like unto Him, I think
that we ought again to shew clearly, bringing to spiritual investigation and test the
things written in Exodus. It says thus, And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp
to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was
altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof
was going up as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole people quaked greatly. And the
voices of the trumpet sounded, going forth exceeding mighty, Moses spake, and God answered
him by a voice. Thus far then the oracle of the all-wise Moses: but I think we ought now
too to convict the Jews of stumbling into a most absurd idea of God, imagining that they
had both seen His Form, and heard the Voice actually inherent in the Divine Nature.

Come then taking courage in the bounty and grace of the Saviour, let us refine the
grossness of the letter of the law into spiritual contemplation: for so will that be shewn
to be true which was said to the Pharisees of God; Ye have neither heard His Voice at any
time nor seen His Form. The people then being brought forth by Moses to meet God, as it is
written, will be a manifest sign and token as in enigma, that none can unled and
uninstructed come to God, but by the law are they led to the knowledge of the things which
they seek to learn. For Moses will be understood to be put for the Law, according as is
said by a certain one, They have Moses and the Prophets. But the standing by under the
mount, when God had now descended and was on it, signifies the readiness of disposition
and resolve of those who are called to serve Him, not refusing in any way to apply
themselves even to things above their power and superior to their nature, while God is
with them. Such in all respects are they who are partakers of the Saviour. Wherefore they
practising manliness above men say, Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? shall
tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword?

for all dreadful things are tolerable to the godly for love of Christ, and though
tribulation should rise up as a mountain, they will rise superior against all danger, and
will not withdraw their mind from love to God. But God is said to come down, not upon any
low ground, but somewhere on high and on a mountain is He seen, that you may think some
such thing as this with yourself, that although the Divine Nature condescending to our
understandings, brings Itself to our conception, yet is It exceeding far above us, both in
words and thoughts. For the height and intensity of the doctrines respecting It, are
signified by the mountain, which he tells us was wholly darkened with smoke. For keen
indeed and not very clear to us are words respecting the Godhead, wounding like smoke the
eyes of the understanding. Therefore the most wise Paul testified that we see through a
glass and darkly: the Psalmist again says that He, that is, God, made darkness His secret
place, under the name of darkness hinting the Incomprehensibleness around Him, whereof the
smoke about the fire on the mount may well be taken as a type. But the Godhead Itself
descended in the form of fire, at that particular time, fittingly and of necessity for the
nature of the thing. For it behoved, it behoved that He Who called Israel unto bondage and
understanding through the law that should be put forth, should appear as an Enlightener
and an Avenger.

And both these ends are accomplished by fire. Yea, and the voices of the trumpet (saith
he) sounded, going forward exceeding mighty, that some such effect of ideas again may be
wrought for us: for the Law too was proclaimed by God, yet not continuously at first, by
reason of the infirmity of the pupils, but stammeringly, so to say, and not with the whole
force of the trumpeter. Wherefore Moses too called himself slow of speech. But as time
advances, and carries forward the believers in Christ from the shadow in the letter to the
spiritual worship, the voices of the Divine trumpet waxed exceeding mighty, the saving and
Gospel preaching resounding in a way through the whole earth. For not as the Law, feeble-
voiced and petty-heralding, was this heard in the country of the Jews only, or proclaimed
from Dan to Beersheba, but rather, Their voice went forth into all the earth, as it is
written. And what besides? Moses spake (saith he) and God answered him by a voice.

Keen be again the mind of the more studious, accurately let it observe the stability
inherent in the Divine Oracles. For Moses speaks, and God answers him by a voice, not
surely by His Own Voice, for this it does not say, but simply and absolutely by a voice,
wrought wondrously in more human wise by sound of words. For in respect of what work will
God be powerless? What that God wills shall He not perform, and that full readily?
Therefore Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. Herein is the type, let us see the
truth. You have therefore in the holy Gospels the Lord speaking, Father, glorify Thy Son
2, and the Father answering by a voice, I both glorified, and will glorify again. The
Saviour shewed that this is not truly the voice of God the Father, by saying to those who
were then present, This voice was made not because of Me, but for your sakes. Thou seest
how He clearly affirmed that the Voice was made, since it is not meet to suppose that the
Divine Nature useth a voice with a sound, though It conform Itself to our needs and speak
like us, economically.

These considerations were of necessity brought into our present discourse: we deemed it
altogether needful that Jesus should be shewn to the readers speaking truth, when He is
found saying of His Father, Ye have neither heard His Voice at any time nor seen His
shape, and ye have not His Word abiding in you, for Whom HE hath sent, Him yE believe not.
That the Pharisees puffed up unto strange boasting, were wont to pretend that the Divine
Word was with them and in them, and therefore foolishly affirmed that they had advanced to
marvellous wisdom, the Spirit Itself will testify, since Christ says by the Prophet
Jeremiah unto them, How do ye say, WE are wise, and the word of the Lord is with us? For
nought to the scribes became their lying pen; the wise men were ashamed, were dismayed and
taken; what wisdom is in them? because they rejected the word of the Lord. For how are
they not taken rejecting the Living and Hypostatic Word of God, receiving not the faith to
Him-ward, but dishonouring the Impress of God the Father, and refusing to behold His most
true Form (so to say) through His God-befitting Authority and Power?

For the Divine and Ineffable Nature is in no other wise apprehended (so far as may be) by
us, than through what It effects and works, therefore Paul directs us to go from the
greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably unto the contemplation of the
Creator, the Saviour again leads us to the apprehending of Himself, saying, If I do not
the works of My Father, believe Me not; but if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe My
works. And with great reason did He blame His own disciple (this was Philip) who imagined
thoughtlessly that he could in any other way attain to the contemplation of God the
Father, albeit it was in his power to consider His Uncreated Image, which shews accurately
in Himself Him Who begat Him. Wherefore He said, So long time am I with you, and hast thou
not known Me Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.

39,40 Ye search the Scriptures, for in them YE think ye have eternal life, and they are
they which testify of Me, and ye will not come to Me that ye might have life. The smooth,
and passable to the many, and beaten explanation of the passage persuades us to suppose
that it was spoken in the imperative mood by our Saviour to the Pharisees, that they ought
to search the Divine Scriptures and gather testimonies concerning Him unto life. But since
by interposing the conjunction (I mean, And) He joins on the clause, Ye will not come to
Me, He evidently signifies something else, akin to what has been said, but a little
different. For if it were to be taken imperatively, how should we not say it was necessary
to say the whole sentence in some such fashion as this, Search the Scriptures for in them
YE think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me; but when ye have
searched, come to Me? But He is blaming them for not choosing to come, although led to it
by the search, saying, And ye will not come to Me.

We will then, looking to what is more profitable and agreeable to what preceded, read it
not imperatively, but rather as in connection and with a comma. Of this kind again will be
the meaning of the passage before us. For when He saw that they were ever running to the
books of Moses, and ignorantly collecting thence materials for gainsaying, but seeking for
nothing else, nor receiving what would avail them for due belief: needs therefore does He
shew them that their labour in searching for these things is useless and unprofitable, and
clearly convicts them of exercising themselves in a great and most profitable occupation
in a way not becoming its use. For what tell me (saith He) is the use of your searching
the Divine Scriptures, and supposing that by them ye will attain unto everlasting life,
but when ye find that they testify of Me and call Me everlasting life, ye will not come to
Me that ye might have life? Whence then ye ought to be saved (He saith) ye perceive not
that thence ye get the greatest damage to your own souls, ye who are sharpened from the
Mosaic books only unto gainsaying, but the things whereby ye could gain eternal life, ye
do not so much as receive into your minds.

For that in the Law and the holy Prophets there is much said concerning Him Who is by
Nature Life, that is the Only-Begotten, will I think be plain to all who are lovers of
learning. 41, 42 I receive not honour from man, but I know you, that ye have not the Love
of God in you. He perceives again, yea rather He sees in a God-befitting way, that the
stubborn and contumacious band of the Pharisees were cut to the heart, and that not
altogether at being accused of not searching the Divine Scriptures as they ought, but
rather at His saying, Ye will not come to Me. For what diseases themselves easily fall
into, these they think can take hold of the Saviour also. For they imagined (it seems) of
their great folly that the Lord was ambitious, and wished to obtain for Himself honour
from all, through His calling them to be His disciples. Having got some such surmise as
this into their minds, they expected to be deprived forthwith of their authority over the
nation: they were cut to the heart in no slight degree at seeing the Heir desirous of
demanding the fruit of the vineyard. Wherefore, as far as pertains to their wrath and envy
at what is said, they all but say what is in the Gospel parables, Come, let us hill Him
and let us have His inheritance. Taking away then their surmise the offspring of
emptiness, and plucking up beforehand by the roots the shoots of envy and evil eye, He
says downright, I receive not honour from man. For I do not (says He) call My hearers to
discipleship under Me, as though hunting for honour from you, or from others, as YE do,
nor do I receive this as the reward of My teaching, having most full glory from Myself,
and not short of that from you, but I said that ye would not come to Me, because I know
well, that ye have not the love of God in you. And being destitute of Love to God (says
He) how should ye come to Me, Who am the Only Begotten, God of God?

43 I am come in My Father's Name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own
name, him ye will receive. In order that the Pharisees might not think that the Lord was
idly railing at them, from His saying, Ye have not the love of God in you, He immediately
adds this also to the above, shewing that the saying is true. That I do not lie (says He)
in saying that ye are bereft of love towards God, I will set before you by one thing. For
I came in My Father's Name (for I am persuading you zealously to perform all things to the
glory of God the Father) but ye shook off from you by your unbelief Him That cometh from
above and proceedeth from God: but ye will surely receive (for as God, I know things to
come) the falsely-called, who does not offer the glory to God the Father, and demands
credence from you, yet works in his own name. Whence I suppose the blessed Paul too,
having understanding, says something true concerning the Jews and the son of
transgression, Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might he saved,
for this cause God sendeth 3 them an operation of error, that they should believe a lie,
that they all might be doomed who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in
unrighteousness. This then which is said is a proof that the Pharisees were not slandered
by our Saviour Christ with empty words, for it introduces a prophecy of an event which
should come to pass in its time.

44 How can ye believe, which receive glory of men, and seek not the glory that is of the
only God? He accuses the Pharisees of love of rule and of prizing honours from men,
covertly hinting that they do exceeding ill, in unadvisedly putting the diseases of their
own soul upon God Who can by no means know disease. Next He says that they, fast held by
vain glory, thereby lose the fairest prize, meaning faith in Him: whereof Paul too
speaketh clearly to us: for if (says he) I were yet pleasing men, I should not be Christ's
servant. It usually then as of necessity befalls those who hunt for honours from men, to
fail of the glory that cometh from above and from the only God, as saith the Saviour. He
says only, opposing God to the gods of the Gentiles, and not excluding Himself from the
honour of the Only. For as we have often said already, the Fullness of the Holy and
Consubstantial Trinity mounteth up to One Nature and glory of Godhead.

45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is that accuseth you, Moses,
in whom YE have hoped. Having said that the Pharisees cared more to live vain-gloriously
than piously, and having taught that hence they turned aside to unmeasured unbelief, He
says that they were accused by Moses himself, of whom it was their custom to boast very
vehemently. And indeed when the man who was blind from his birth once said to them of
Christ, Will YE also be His disciples? immediately they cry out and say openly, THOU art
His disciple, but WE are Moses disciples. Even Moses himself therefore (says He) shall
accuse you, in whom ye put all your hope, and he despised with the rest will denounce
before God your innate folly. And we do not deem that they who believe not in Him will be
without blame from Christ, by reason of His saying to the Jews, Do not think that I will
accuse you to the Father. For what shall we say when we hear Him saying, Whosoever
therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I too confess before My Father which is in
Heaven: but whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father
which is in Heaven? shall we not reasonably suppose, that they shall be accused to God the
Father for their denial, who meet with this from Christ? But I suppose this is clear to
every one. The Jews then are not surely free from accusal who have through long unbelief
denied Christ, but this applies to them most naturally.

For since they shook off His admonitions, and made no account of His Divine and Heavenly
teaching, but are ever about duly keeping the Mosaic law, so as to be seen at length even
more nakedly crying out, WE know that God hath spoken unto Moses, this man we know not
from whence He is:----most necessarily does He convict them of transgressing against that
Moses, in whom they boast, and says that they need no other accuser, but that the law
given through him will alone suffice for their with reason being accused for their
unbelief in Him, even though the Voice of the Judge, that is, Christ, should be dumb. 46
For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for of Me he wrote. Having said that
the Jews would be accused by the all-wise Moses, and would undergo indictment at his hands
for their unbelief in Him; He profitably subjoins these things also, teaching that He was
not finding fault with them for nothing, or otherwise repudiating the suspicion of being
given to railing, for it is evident that He is making no untrue speech. Be it then (saith
He) that ye reject My words, I will bear with not being believed: receive your own Moses,
give credence to him whom ye admire, and ye shall know of a surety Him whom not knowing ye
dishonour. Break off your types which travail with the truth. For I am shadowed out in his
books. Therefore will Moses himself also accuse you (saith He) when he seeth you
disbelieving his writings about Me.

We ought then perhaps having interpreted what is before us, to proceed in order,
committing it to sincere lovers of learning to investigate the images of Christ through
Moses. For his books are full of passages, and there is much said by him, yet full of
difficulty to understand and replete with exceeding subtle and hidden meanings. But lest
we seem to let indolence have the mastery over us, and unreasonably to shirk so glorious a
toil, by simply clothing with difficulty the books of Moses, we will apply ourselves to
this too, knowing what is written, The Lord will give utterance to them who evangelize
with much power. But since there are, as we have said, many words on these things, and
since the all-wise Moses hath through many forms foretypified the Mystery of Christ, we
shall not deem it necessary to heap up a great multitude before our readers, but having
chosen one out of the whole number, we will essay to make clear proof that the Word of our
Saviour was true, which He spake to the Jews, saying, If ye had believed Moses, ye would
have believed Me, for of Me he wrote.

Chapter III. That Moses was indicating the Coming of the Saviour. From Deuteronomy,
concerning Christ.

The Lord thy God (it says) will raise up unto thee a Prophet from thy brethren, like unto
me, Him shall ye hear; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb
in the day of the assembly, saying, Let us not hear again the voice of the LORD our God,
neither let us see this great fire any more, nor let us die: and the LORD said unto me,
Well is all which they spake: I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren
like unto thee, and will put My word in His Mouth, and He shall speak unto them as I shall
command Him. And the man who shall not hearken unto what the Prophet shall speak in My
Name, I will require it of him. Deuteronomy is a kind of repetition and summary of the
Mosaic books: it is not therefore possible to take from it a type and image of the legal
priesthood. Yet since we are not accustomed to be without understanding, who in all think
rightly by Christ's aid, we will tell our readers and throw open the meaning of the
passage in hand: Lo again is the mystery of Christ plainly told us, skilfully moulded by
most subtle contemplation from likeness to Moses. For (says he) a Prophet shall the Lord
your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me:

himself explaining, and that unflinchingly, what is the idea which from the likeness to
himself his declaration introduces to us, clearly subjoins, According to all that thou
desiredst of the LORD thy God in the mount Sinai in the day of the assembly, saying, Let
us not hear any more the voice of the LORD our God, neither let us see this great fire any
more, and let us not die. For he affirms that himself was at that time spoken of as a
mediator, the Synagogue of the Jews being yet powerless to have to do with things above
nature, and therefore prudently declining things above their power. For such was the sight
of God, surprising the vision with unwonted sights, and the echoes of the trumpets
supernatural and intolerable to the hearers. Therefore the mediation of Moses was
instituted as medicine of infirmity for those at that time, ministering to the synagogue
the things decreed of God. You will transfer again the type to the truth, and will hereby
conceive of Christ, the Mediator of God and men, ministering to the more teachable by
means of human voice (when for our sakes He was born of a woman) the Ineffable Will of God
the Father, made known to Him Alone, in that He is conceived of as both Son, of Him, and
Wisdom, knowing all things, yea the deep things of God. For since it was not possible for
the eyes of the body to fasten themselves upon the untempered and bare Divine and
Ineffable glory of the Essence which surpasseth all things (for there shall no man (saith
He) see My Face, and live:) needs was the Only-Begotten Word of God co-fashioned after our
infirmities, clothed in this human body according to the Ineffable mode of the economy,
and manifesting to us the counsel from above, that is of God the Father, saying, All
things that I heard of My Father, these will I declare unto you, and again, For I spake
not of Myself, but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment what I should say
and what I should speak. Therefore as an image of the mediation, Moses of old may be
considered a type of Christ, ministering most excellently to the children of Israel the
things appointed from God: but the mediation of Moses was ministrative, that of Christ is
free and more mystical, in that He takes hold by Nature of the things mediated and reaches
unto both, I mean the manhood that is mediated and God the Father.

For He was by Nature God, as the Only-Begotten of God, as not separated from the Essence
of Him Who begat Him, and in-being in It, as He is conceived to be also of it. But He was
Man too, in that He became Flesh likening Himself to us, that through Him that which is by
nature far separated might be conjoined to God. When then Moses says, A Prophet shall the
Lord raise up unto you like unto me, you will understand it no other wise than we have
just said. Since God Himself also sets His seal on the word saying, Well is all which they
spake; I will raise them up a Prophet like unto thee, and will put My Words upon Him, and
He shall speak unto them according to all that I shall command Him. For the Son upholdeth
all things by the word of His Power, as Paul saith, and telleth us the words of the
Father, inasmuch as He is ordained a Mediator by Him, as is sung in the Psalms, as of
Christ Himself, And I was set King by Him upon Sion His holy Mountain, declaring the
decree of the Lord.

But if it seem good to any, by other considerations also to attain unto the mode of
likeness, he will understand Like unto me as lawgiver, and will bring forward as proof the
words, It was said by them of old, Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you,
Thou shalt not lust. He will understand again like unto me, saying that He is a kind of
leader and master unto the being able to understand the will of the Father, and to the
things whereby there is the high road into the Kingdom of Heaven: just as to them of old
too the blessed Moses appeared a teacher of the instruction through the Law, adding
everywhere to his own words, That thou mayest live long, and that the Lord thy God may
bring thee into the land which He sware to thy fathers. But since he subjoined to what has
been said, And the man that will not hear what the Prophet shall speak in My Name, I will
require it of him; let the ignorant Jews, who harden their minds to most utter
stubbornness, consider that they are pouring self-invited destruction upon their own
heads. For they shall be under Divine wrath, receiving the total loss of good things as
the wages of their rage against Christ. For if they had believed Moses, they would have
believed Christ, for of Him he wrote.

47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My Words? The verse might
appear to a person, and with good reason, to have great obscurity. For he might even
without being out of the mark, take to untrue surmises, supposing that the books of Moses
excel the words of the Saviour. For the verse hath some such appearance, and as far as one
can say, taking it without accurate consideration, it furnishes to the Mosaic writings a
more worthy repute than to the words of the Saviour. For by saying, If ye believe not Ms
writings, how shall ye believe My Words, He somehow gives us to understand that the
writings of Moses are in a superior position to His Own words. But the very nature of the
thing will shew that this so incredible idea is replete with the extremest folly: for how
shall the writings of Moses be conceived to excel the words of the Saviour, when his were
types and shadows, Christ's the truth? And it would not perhaps be hard to expend much
reasoning hereupon: but things which are obvious and receive their proof, not from
without, but from themselves, I think it superfluous to say that they are not in ill case
or the reverse. For why should one waste time making fine distinctions about such things,
and mince upwhat is by no means hard into unseasonable babblings?

Some such meaning as this then hath that which is said by the Saviour. If (says He) ye who
have the Law written by Moses, and thoroughly study his writings, make no account of
transgression of them, burying in strange oblivion that which is full often read, how will
ye be better disposed to My Words, or how will ye shew yourselves more ready and more
obedient to My sayings, since ye have not often nor always attended them, but hear them by
the way, and scarce once admit them into the bodily ears? You shall either clothe the
verse in this dress, or you may consider it in another way: for to love of learning
belongs the labour and research herein. The writings of Moses then introduce a kind of
preparation for, and typical outline of the Mysteries of Christ, and the elements, so to
say, of knowledge of Him are the things limned in Moses, as we shewed more at large by the
things already examined. But the end of the instruction of the Law is Christ, according as
it is written, Christ is the fulfilment of the law and the Prophets. They then (saith He)
who received not the elements of the beginning of the words 4 of God, and in their folly
thrust away the Law which by its clearer letter leadeth them, how shall they attain to yet
more perfect knowledge? or how will the greater be acceptable, if that which is little and
inferior be by no means admitted?

Chapter IV. That oftentimes the departures of Christ from Jerusalem signify the
transferring of His grace to the Gentiles: wherein is also the discourse of the five
barley loaves and the two little fishes.

Chap. vi. And after these things Jesus departed across the sea of Tiberias. First I think
it needful to tell my hearers, that the Lord evidently did not make His departures from
Jerusalem without some most necessary reason. There is an economy on almost every
occasion, and on the nature of things, as on a tablet, He inscribes mysteries. Of what
nature then is the intent of the departure, and what is signified thereby, we will make
manifest in its proper time, the chapters before us having reached their termination. For
having divided every thing into sections, and interpreted what is profitable out of the
Scriptures, and so set them before our readers for their understanding, we will offer the
final consideration of the whole, epitomising in a summary what has been said in many
portions. But I think we ought to speak first on what is now before us.

After these things (saith he) Jesus departed across the sea of Tiberias. After what
things, must be sought not negligently. Christ then was manifested in Jerusalem as a
wondrous Physician. He had healed the man who had been thirty and eight years in his
infirmity, not by giving him any medicine, not by devising any disease-repelling remedy,
but rather by a word, as God, by Almighty Authority and God-befitting beck: for Arise
(saith He) take up thy bed, and go unto thy house. But since it was the sabbath, the Jews
are ignorantly angry, who were sick with the grossness of the letter, who more than he,
were bound by the folly that was their foster brother, who were sick of the listless want
of all good things alike, who were paralytic in mind and enfeebled in habit, to whom might
with reason be said, Strengthen ye, ye weak hands and ye palsied knees. But they are
angry, saying that the honour due to the sabbath ought to be paid even by the Law-giver
Himself; they condemn Christ as a transgressor, not admitting into their mind what is
written, Impious is he who says to a king, Thou transgressest? For these things they
received sharp reproofs from the Saviour, and much and long discourse was prepared to shew
that the rest of the sabbath had been typically ordained for them of old and that the Son
of Man is Lord of the sabbath. But they prepared to no good thing, but full ready for all
waywardness, rise up against Him Who teacheth what they ought to learn, and desire to kill
Him who would make them wise, rewarding Him, as it is written, evil for good.

After these deeds therefore and words, the Lord, as of necessity, departs from Jerusalem,
and since the Jews' Passover 5 was nigh (as we shall find a little further on) He sailed
across the sea of Tiberias, or the lake in the country of the Jews so called. But since
what principally drove Him away, and induced Him to withdraw and to go to other places and
those so far removed from Jerusalem, was (we have just said) that the Jews' Passover was
nigh, I think it fitting to shew that exceeding well did Jesus eschew being found in
Jerusalem at that time. The Law of Moses then commanded that the Jews should hasten from
the whole country round about to Jerusalem, there to celebrate in a type the feast of
tabernacles. And the spiritual person will thence perceive the gathering together of all
the Saints into Christ, when they shall be brought together from the whole world after the
resurrection of the dead to the city which is above, the heavenly Jerusalem, there to
offer the thank-offerings of the true pitching of tabernacles, that is of the framing and
abidance of bodies, corruption having been destroyed and death fallen into death. As far
as one can speak as to the fact of history, the multitude of them who went up to Jerusalem
knew not number, and it was probable that at that time the Pharisees had great influence,
making believe to take the part of the law, and mid so great a multitude crying out
against the transgressor, or Him Who seemed to them to transgress. For it is not at all
hard to fire up the countless swarm of common people, when one says that they are wronged
and endeavours to stir them up even against those that have nothing wronged them. For like
water or fire, they are flung about everywhere by unconsidered and random impulses, and
advance to everything that can hurt. These things then the Lord not ignorant of, withdraws
privily from Jerusalem with His disciples, and goes across the sea of Tiberias. But that
He does exceeding well in shunning the Jews who desire to kill Him, we shall see by these
things also. For the blessed Evangelist himself says, And after these things Jesus walked
in Galilee, for He would not walk in Jewry because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.

That He avoids walking in Jewry, in order not to undergo death before His time, I will
grant (will some one haply say) but whether He also avoids the feast, I do not yet know.
They then that were reputed His brethren come to Christ in Galilee, saying, Depart hence
and go into Judaea, that Thy disciples also may see the works that Thou doest. But the
Lord answered them, Go YE up unto the feast, I go not up unto this feast, for My time hath
not yet been fulfilled. It is then very plain and clear, that the Saviour had withdrawn
from Jerusalem, not only sent into voluntary banishment, so to say, from thence, but also
loathing the abomination of the unbelieving, both by His skill eluding the fierceness of
His persecutors, and by His prudence thrusting back the dart of envy. He withdraws again,
albeit able to suffer nothing, even though He were present, that He may limn us a fair
example, not of cowardice, but of piety and charity towards our neighbour. For we shall
know, led as by a pattern to the knowledge of what is profitable, that if our enemies
persecute us, even though no harm at all be seen in our remaining, yet by retiring, and
thereby evading the broadside of the onslaughts, and retreating from present heat, we may
find the anger of those who wrong us beyond its zenith, and may cut away the boldness of
their arrogance, profiting those who were not good towards us, and that unjustly, rather
than ourselves profited, which is plainly, not seeking our own but also others' good. The
work of love then, is the not wholly withstanding those who wish us evil, nor by being
satisfied with not being able to suffer anything even if present, to work in them anger
more bitter, from its not being able to attain the mastery over that which is hated. Love
then, as Paul says, seeketh not her own, and this was purely in Christ.

But if you fix again the keen eye of the understanding upon what is written, you will be
surprised to find a most excellent economy in the departures of our Saviour, I mean from
Jerusalem. For He is driven out oftentimes by the mad folly of the Jews, and lodging with
the aliens, seems both to be kept safe by them, and to enjoy due honour. Where by He gives
judgment of superiority to the Church of the Gentiles, and through the piety of others,
convicts them of Israel of their hatred of God, and shews the cruelty that is in them by
means of the gentleness that is in these, that in every respect they may be proved to have
been well and rightly thrust out of the promise to the fathers. But the Lord having
hastened away from Jerusalem, lodges not at one of the cities round about, nor takes up
His abode in the neighbouring villages, but goes across the sea of Tiberias, by a most
evident act all but threatening those who blasphemously take up the idea that they ought
to persecute Him, that He would so far depart from them and estrange Himself from their
whole nation, as even to make the way of their conversion to Him in some sort impassable:
for the sea can by no means be trodden by foot of man.

Some such thing as this will He be found saying to them in what follows too, Ye shall seek
Me and shall not find Me, and whither I go, YE cannot come. For most smooth and easy and
free from ruggedness to those who by faith go to Him is the way of righteousness; rugged
and up-hill, yea rather, wholly impassable to them that provoke Him, as is said by one of
the holy Prophets, For right are the ways of the Lord, and the just shall walk in them,
but the transgressors shall fail therein. Therefore the intervening tract of sea signifies
the toilsomeness yea rather the impassableness by the Jews, of the way to Him, since God
declares that He hedges up the ways of the ungodly soul, saying in the Prophets,
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, and she shall not find her path.
What then the thorns there signified, this here too the sea in that it separates the
Insulted from those who chose recklessly to insult Him, and severs the Holy from the
unholy.

But the type seems as though it were pregnant to us with yet another hidden mystery. For
when Israel was sent forth from the country of the Egyptians, Pharaoh was following in
exceeding exasperation and, maddened at the unexpected well-doing of the nation, was
hastening by law of battle to dare his envious and grievous designs; he was following,
thinking he should be able to constrain to return to bondage those who had late and hardly
slipped away from under his serfdom: but God was leading His people through the midst of
the sea; and he hotly pursuing, and by no means enduring to abate his anger, and foolishly
persuaded of his ungoverned wrath to fight against God, was swallowed up in the midst
thereof with his whole army, and Israel alone was saved. But let now too Moses come
forward in the midst of us, who lamented beforehand the mad folly of the Jews, and let him
in his indignation at their impiety towards Christ say to them, An evil and adulterous
generation, do ye thus requite the Lord? Him that bare thee through the midst of the sea
and through mighty waves thou drivest over the sea, and dost thou not blush at persecuting
Him? Thine then is the suffering, O Jew: thee will the sea at last swallow up. For to the
persecutors, not to the persecuted did death belong both then in their case, and now in
regard of Christ and of the unholy Jews.

The divine David too singeth to us, Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the
deep swallow me up, hinting at the all-dread shipwreck of the Synagogue of the Jews, and
entreating not to be swallowed up with them in their depth of ignorance. But in respect of
the Egyptians and him that ruled over them, the peril was then of their earthly bodies,
but the Jews' conduct being in respect of what is more precious, more severely are they
punished; for they undergo punishment of the soul, receiving recompence proportionate to
their wickednesses. For with reason was Pharaoh punished, endeavouring to get what was
free into bondage: contrariwise again justly is Israel punished, for not entering into
bond-service under the Lord of all: but what the one was to him in the might of his greed,
this was he too found to be towards God from his great vain-glory.

We must note, that he calls the Lake of Tiberias a sea, in accordance with the words of
Divine Scripture, for the gathering together of the waters called the Creator Seas. Among
profane writers too the word is often indifferently used, insomuch that some do not
hesitate sometimes to call the sea a lake. 2, 3, 4 And a great multitude was following Him
because they saw His miracles which He did on them that were diseased: and Jesus went up
into the mountain and there He sat with His disciples, and the Passover, a feast of the
Jews, was nigh. For when Christ had gone forth from Jerusalem, according to that which is
said in the Prophets; I have forsaken Mine House, I have left Mine heritage; when having
spurned the disobedient and unruly people of the Jews, He gave Himself to the aliens, then
a great multitude followeth Him. But He goeth up into a mountain, according to that surely
which He had afore said, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
Me. For He was lifted up from the earth, on ascending the Cross for our sakes; He was
lifted up again in another way having ascended as unto a mountain, unto God-befitting
honour and glory. For we do not, like Israel, dishonour Him as Man, but WE worship Him as
God and Saviour and Lord. For among them He was conceived of as some lowly one and as
nothing at all; and verily they would shrink not from calling Him a Samaritan, and with
graver dishonour would call Him the carpenter's Son: but among them who believe on Him, He
is admired as the Mighty Worker and God, a Doer of miracles. For you may hear how pious is
the purpose of them who followed Him. For because they saw His miracles upon the infirm,
therefore they thought they ought to follow Him more zealously, as being led from the
things performed proportionably unto the knowledge of the Performer, and from His God-
befitting Authority considering that He who was clothed therewith is by Nature Son.

For by this way the Saviour commanded us to advance unto faith in Him. For the works that
I do (saith He) the very works bear witness of Me, and again, If I do not the works of My
Father, believe Me not, but if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe My works. As then
from the greatness of the beauty of the creatures, their Maker God is seen, so from
miracle, by a like process of thought, the Perfecter of signs is seen, and the faith of
His followers is rightly marvelled at. But I deem that some more special and not obvious
interpretation is concealed in the things said. For we see that the Evangelist says that
they who followed Christ were not only glad beholders of miracles, but also of what
miracles they were most just admirers. For he adds, Which He did on them that were
diseased, that hence he might shew that the frame of mind of those that followed Him was
contrary to that of the Jews. For these because He had healed the sick of the palsy, are
impiously angry, but the former not only admire Him for these things when present, but
also flock together to Him at His departure, as Wonder-worker and God. Let us then, who
have subscribed 6 unto ourselves Christ as our Lord, flee the ignorance befitting the
Jews, let us cleave to Him by patience, as the most wise disciples did enduringly, by no
means enduring to depart from Him and be deserters, but by our very deeds crying aloud,
that which was valiantlyspoken by Paul, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Let
us then follow Him, both persecuted and in fleeing from the stubbornness of those who
strive against Him, that we may both go up into a mountain and there sit with Him, that
is, may spring up into glorious and most excellent grace, by reigning together with Him,
according as Himself said, YE which have followed Me in My temptations, in the
regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, YE also shall sit
upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. For I think that the disciples
being said to abide with the Saviour, and to go up into a mountain and sit with Him,
introduces these ideas.

5, 6, 7 When Jesus therefore lifted up His Eyes and saw that a great company cometh unto
Him, He saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? and this He said
to prove him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him, A lesson most
excellent did Christ again devise for His disciples, and fittest for the most holy men,
both persuading them in utter straits to overcome cowardice in respect of hospitality, and
to cast far away hesitation hereto, rather with more zealous motions to attain unto the
virtue thereof. For what is there greater than this among those who know and will the
things whereby it befitteth to purchase unto themselves the friendship from above? For
when no small crowd cometh to Him, and an innumerable multitude is pouring forth like
waters upon the parts, wherein He was stopping, He immediately ordered them to make
preparations for feeding them. And in truth it was not unlikely that the zeal even of a
very rich man would numb, by the multitude of those he saw startled into fear of not being
able to be hospitable. But Christ shews that it is nothing at all great, when our
brotherly love comes to a few, but wills that we should overcome with manful courage also
things that surpass our expectation, firmly grounded by confidence in Him to boldness unto
all good things.

In regard then of the narrative, the force of what is said, aims not away from the mark;
but changing again these things unto their spiritual significance, and cutting away the
gross typical dress, we say more openly, that those who by good zeal and faith seek Him,
God fore-beholdeth, as from a mountain, that is from His high and God-befitting
foreknowledge, according to that which is said by Paul, For whom He did foreknow and
predestinate to be conformed to the Image of His Son, these He also called. Christ then
lifts up His Eyes as shewing that they who love Him are worthy of the Divine Gaze, even as
in blessing it was said to Israel, The Lord lift up His Countenance upon thee and give
thee peace. But not by the mere looking on them is His grace toward them that honour Him
bounded, but the blessed Evangelist adding something more, shews that the Lord was not
unmindful of the multitudes, but well prepared for their food and entertainment: that
hereby again thou mayest understand that which is delivered us in Proverbs, The Lord will
not suffer the righteous soul to famish. For He sets before them Himself, as Bread from
Heaven, and will nourish the souls of them that fear Him: and prepareth all things
sufficient to them for sustenance; as he saith in the Psalms, Thou preparest their food,
for thus is Thy provision. And Christ Himself somewhere saith, Verily, verily I say unto
you, he that cometh to Me shall never hunger. For He will give, as we said before, food
from heaven, and will richly bestow the manifold grace of the Spirit. He prepareth
moreover to give food to them that come to Him, not even awaiting their asking. For we
know not what we should pray for as we ought, but He forecometh us in reaching forth those
things which preserve us unto eternal life.

He saith then unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread? We must needs see, why to Philip,
although the rest of the disciples were standing by and cleaving to Him: Philip then was a
questioner and apt to learn, but not over quick in ready power of understanding the more
Divine. This you will learn, if you consider with yourself that he, after having followed
the Saviour for a long time and gathered manifold lessons concerning His Godhead and
gotten to himself apprehension through both deeds and words, as though he had learnt
nothing yet, in the last times of the economy says to Jesus, Lord, shew us the Father, and
it sufficeth us; but as saying it in his simplicity he was fitly re-instructed, So long
time am I with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip? saith Christ. Therefore as to one
duller of understanding, and advancing more slowly than he ought to the apprehension of
things more Divine, He puts forth the question, exercising the disciple in faith. For this
is one meaning of, To prove him, in this passage, although as the blessed Evangelist
affirmed, He Himself knew what He would do.

But His saying Whence shall we buy proves the uncare for money of them that were with Him,
and their voluntary poverty for God's sake, in that they had not even wherewithal to buy
necessary food. Together with this He works something, and orders it skillfully. For He
says Whence, not emptily, as to those who had taken no trouble to provide anything at all,
but as to those who were accustomed to entire uncare for money. Excluding then, and
cutting short most skilfully expectation arising from money, He well nigh persuades them
to go on to entreat the Lord, that He would, if He willeth them when they have nothing to
feed those that come to Him, by His unspeakable Power and God-befitting Might create food.
For this was what yet remained, and He was calling them at length to see that their only
remaining hopes were thence, according to the Greek poets,

---------- the iron wound of necessity. Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient
for them, that every one of them may take a little. Feebly again does Philip advance, not
to the power of Jesus to do all things, and that easily, but on hearing Whence shall we
buy said to prove him, forthwith he catches at it, and looks at the means by money alone,
not conceiving that the nature of the thing may be accomplished otherwise than by the
common law, and that practised by all, to wit, prodigality of expenditure. Therefore as
far as regards the disciples' uncare for money and their possessing nothing, and Philip's
own apprehension, which did not as yet with perfect clearness view the exceeding dignity
of our Saviour, liberality towards the multitudes is turned into an impossibility. But it
was not so, the will of the Saviour conducts it to its completion. The impossible with men
is possible with God, and the Divine Power proves on all sides superior to the natural
order of things with us, strong to accomplish all things wondrously, even what overleap
our understanding.

8, 9, 10 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto Him, There is a
lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so
many? Jesus saith, He both thinks and reasons akin to Philip, and is convicted of having a
kindred apprehension of the Saviour Christ. For neither considering the power, nor yet led
by the greatness of His preceding works unto Jesus' being able for all things, and that
most easily; he points out what the lad has, but is evidently weak in faith: for what are
these (he says) among so many? Albeit (for we must say it) in no unready way but
resolutely rather ought he to go forth to the memory of those things which had been
already miraculously wrought, and to consider that it was a work by no means strange or
foreign from Him Who had transformed into wine the nature of water, had healed the palsied
and driven away so great an infirmity by one word, that He, I say, should create food of
that which had no being, and multiply Divinely the exceeding little that was found ready
to hand. For the Authority that wrought in the one, how should it not be able to work in
the other? Wherefore the pair of disciples answered more feebly than was meet. But herein
we must consider this again. For those things which appear to have been little falls in
the Saints, are oftentimes not without their share of profit, but have something wrapt up
with them, helpful to the nature of that in regard to which is the charge of their
apparent infirmity.

For the above mentioned holy disciples, having considered, and openly said, one, that Two
hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one may take a little,
the other, of the five loaves and two little fishes, that what are these among so many?
raise the marvel to its height, and make the Might of the Saviour most marked, indicating
by their own words the multitude that but now was to be filled, and the strength of their
unbelief is converted into good testimony unto Christ. For in that they confessed that so
large money would not suffice the multitude for even a slight enjoyment, by this very
thing do they crown the Ineffable Might of the Host, when He, while there was nothing
(for, as Andrew says, what were the lad's supplies among so many? very richly outdid His
work of love towards the multitude. The like littleness of faith we shall find in the
wilderness in the all-wise Moses too. For they of Israel were weeping and, excited to a
foul lusting after the tables of Egypt, were picturing to themselves unclean dishes of
flesh, and turning aside after most strange pleasure, of onions and garlic, and the like
unseemly things, and disregarding the Divine good things, were attacking Moses their
mediator and leader. But God was not ignorant, for what the multitude were eagerly
groaning, and promised to give them flesh. But since the promise of liberality was made in
the wilderness, and the thing appeared hard of accomplishment, as regards man's
understanding, Moses came to Him crying out, The people among whom I am, are six hundred
thousand footmen, and THOU saidst, I will give them flesh, and they shall eat a whole
month: shall the flocks and the herds he slain for them, and shall it suffice them? And
what said God to these things? Will the Lord's Hand suffice not? For unto what can God be
powerless?

Therefore one may well say to the words of Philip and Andrew also, Will the Lord's Hand
suffice not? And let us too taking the nature of the thing by way of example, hold that
littleness of faith is the worst of sicknesses and surpasses all evil, and if God work or
promise to do, be it full surely received in simple faith, and let not the Deity be
accused, from our inability to conceive how what is above us shall happen, by reason of
our own powerlessness unto ought. For it becomes the good and sober-minded and him that
hath his reason sound, to consider this too in his mind, how the bodily eye too sees not
surely as far as one would like, but as far as it can, and as the limit of our nature
permits. For the things that are situated at too great a height, it cannot distinguish,
even if it imagine them, with difficulty snatching even the slightest view of them. So do
thou conceive of the mind of man also, so far as the bounds given it by its Maker it
attaineth and stretcheth forth, even if it be wholly purified; for it will see none of
those things that are beyond, but will give way, even against its will, to what is above
nature, wholly unable to grasp them. The things then that are above us are received by
faith, and not by investigation, and as he that so believes is admired, so he that falls
into the contrary is by no means free from blame. And this will the Saviour Himself
testify, saying, He that believeth on the Son is not condemned, but he that believeth not
is condemned already.

Now having once taken up the discourse upon the duty of not mistrusting God, come, let us
again shewing forth somewhat out of the sacred writings, put it forward, and blazon forth
the punishment of the unbelief for the profit of our readers. Therefore (for I will go
again to the hierophant Moses) he was once bidden, in the wilderness, when the people were
oppressed with intolerable thirst, to take Aaron, and smite the rock with his rod, that it
might gush forth fountains of water. But he, not wholly believing the words of Him Who
bade Him, but fainthearted by reason of human nature, saith, Hear now, ye rebels, must we
fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote
the rock once and again, and much water came out: and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron,
Because ye believed Me not, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel,
therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. Is
it not hence clear to every one, how bitter the wages of unbelief? And if Moses so great
as he was, was reproved, whom shall God spare, upon whom will not He who thus respecteth
not persons, inflict His wrath for their unbelief, since He would not spare even that
Moses, to whom He had said, I know thee above all, and thou didst find grace in My Sight.

Make the men sit down: and there was much grass in the place: the men therefore sat down,
in number about five thousand. The Saviour practised His accustomed gentleness, and takes
away the sharpness of His reproaches. For He doth not rebuke bitterly His disciples,
albeit they were deeply slumbering in respect of their faintheartedness and littleness of
faith in Him: but rather He leads them by His Deeds to the apprehension of the things
which as yet they believe not. For the words Make the men sit down have no slight force,
and wellnigh shew Jesus speaking after this sort, O slow to understand My Power, and to
perceive Who it is that speaketh, Make the men sit down, that ye may see them filled with
the nothing that lies before you and marvel. Make the men sit down. For it is what is
lacking to them. For not two hundred pence would have sufficed to get means of life for
the multitudes, but the lack of money such as men use, in respect of its being able to
preserve life, My Power shall attain, which calleth all things into being, and createth
out of things which are not. Nor did Elias the Prophet render the widow's cruse of oil
unfailing, and make the barrel the source of unwasting food: but He, Who gave him the
power, shall He not be able to multiply nothing, and to render any mere chance supply a
fount of His ineffable Bounty and the principle and root of unlooked for grace?

It is not incredible that such were Christ's thoughts in what He said. Profitably doth the
blessed Evangelist mention, that there was much grass in the place, shewing that the
country was fit for the men to sit down in. But observe how, whereas the multitude of them
that were fed was promiscuous, and that women were there with their children, he numbered
the men only, following I suppose the custom of the Law. For God commanded the hierophant
Moses, saying, Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after
their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, by their
polls, every male from twenty years old and upwards. The Prophet did as he was commanded,
and collected a great list of names, and is seen to have completely passed over females
and childhood, and enrols the multitude that are of full age. For honourable in the book
of God too is all that is manly and vigorous, and not what is infantile in purpose after
good things. Therefore did he honour the custom of the Law also herein, and form again
some spiritual conception. For shall we not with reason say, if we look to the whole mind
of the passage, that the violent and vainglorious people of the Jews Christ rightly turns
away from and leaves: but receives very graciously them that come to Him, and fattens them
with heavenly Food, reaching them the Spiritual Bread, which strengthened man's heart?

For He feedeth them not sadly, but joyously and freely and with much enjoyment in piety.
For this the reclining of the multitudes on the grass signifieth, so that now too it is
fit that each one to whom such grace has been vouchsafed should say that in the Psalms,
The Lord is my Shepherd, and nought shall fail me: in a grassy spot there He settled me.
For in much enjoyment and delight through the gifts of the Spirit is the mind of the
Saints fed, as it is said in the Song of Songs, Eat and drink and he inebriated, ye
neighbours. But while there were many, and they sitting down promiscuously, as we said
before, he mentioned the men alone, passing over in silence the women and children
profitably for the idea [conveyed thereby]. For he teaches us, as in a riddle, that to
those who quit them as men, that is, in good, will the food be supplied by the Saviour
more fittingly and specially, and not to those who are effeminate unto no good habit of
life, nor yet to those who are infantile in understanding, so as to be thereby able to
understand none of the things that are necessary to be known.

11 Jesus therefore took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed to them
that were set down; likewise of the fishes also as much as they would. He gives thanks, as
an ensample to us and a pattern of the piety which ought to be in us: and attributes again
as Man the Power of the miracle to the Divine Nature. For this was His custom, both
helping by an example of piety, as we have said, those to whom He was manifested as a
Teacher of what is most excellent, and by an economy concealing yet His God-befitting
Dignity, till the time of His Passion should be at hand: for it was His earnest care that
it should be hid from the prince of this world. For this reason, doth He elsewhere too use
words befitting men, as a Man, and heals again the understanding of His hearers, sometimes
making most wise alluring as in the words, Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me.
Seest thou in how human guise His speech, and well calculated to trouble the understanding
of the more simple? But when He says this, as Man, then again He straightway unfolds the
mode of the economy, and the object of His will to lie hid, by most excellent arrangement
fortifying the mind of the more simple which had received a shock. For I knew (He saith)
that Thou hearest Me always. Why then dost Thou speak these things? Because of the
multitude which stood by I said it, that they may believe (saith He) that Thou sentest Me.
Is it not then hereby plain, that with a view manifoldly to assist us, and to fulfill, as
befitted Him, the secret economy with Flesh, He sometimes speaks more lowlily, than He
really is? As therefore in that passage, I thank Thee, is taken economically, so here too.
[8 He blessed is understood of the bread.]

But we must observe that instead of gave thanks, Matthew has said, blessed, but the
edition of the saints will in no wise differ. For Paul will shew that they are both one,
saying that every meat of God is good, and nothing to be refused: for it is sanctified by
the word of God and prayer. But that which is sanctified through the prayer in
supplication, which we are wont ever to make over the table, is surely blessed.. But since
it is fit that nothing profitable be left uninvestigated by us; come let us say a little
of the five loaves which the lad had and of the two little fishes: for both the species
itself, and besides the numbers are replete with mystery. For why (will some more studious
person say) were not the loaves rather five, and the fishes three? why not five, and the
fishes four? what occasion was there at all for recounting the number found, and why did
not he rather say more simply and absolutely that the innumerable multitude of them that
followed Him were fed off exceeding few chance things? But the fact that the blessed
Evangelist recounted very diligently these things too, gives us something surely to think
of, which we must needs search into.

He says then that the loaves are five, and they of barley, and the fishes two, and with
these Christ feedeth them that love Him. And I think (and let the lover of wisdom look out
for something better) that by the five barley loaves are signified the five-fold book of
the all-wise Moses, that is, the whole Law, bringing in as it were coarser food, that by
the letter and history. For this the barley hints at. But by the little fishes is
signified the food got through the fishermen, that is, the more delicate books of the
disciples of the Saviour; and these two (he says), the apostolic and Evangelic preaching,
shine forth among us. And both these are draughts and spiritual writings of the fishermen.
The Saviour therefore mingling the new with the old, by the Law and the teachings of the
New Testament nourishes the souls of them that believe on Him, unto life, plainly eternal
life. That the disciples were of fishermen, is (I suppose) plain and clear: and though all
were not so, yet since there are some such among them, our argument will not recede from
truth in what has been said.

12, 13 When they were filled, He saith unto His disciples, Gather up the fragments that
remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve
baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above unto
them that had eaten. To some one Christ may seem out of sparing of the fragments to have
bidden His disciples to gather them together. Yet (I think) every one will fitly imagine,
that Christ would not endure to descend to such littleness: and why say I Christ? not even
one of us would do so: for what would be supposed to be the remnant of five barley loaves?
But the verse has a great economy, and makes the miracle evident to the hearers. For so
great is the efficacy of God-befitting Authority in this matter, that not only was so
great a multitude sated from five barley loaves and two little fishes, but twelve baskets
full of fragments were gathered besides. Moreover the miracle repelled another (as is
like) suspicion, and by the finding of the fragments confirmed the belief of there having
been really and truly an abundance of food, and not rather the appearance of a vision
deceiving both the eye of the feasters and of those who minister to them. But greater yet
and more noteworthy, and of exceeding profit to us, is this: consider how by this miracle
He makes us most zealous in our desire to exercise hospitality most gladly, wellnigh
calling aloud to us by the things that were done, that the things of God shall not fail
him that is ready to communicate, and rejoiceth in habit of neighbourly love, and readily
fulfilleth what is written, Break thy bread to the hungry.

For we find that the disciples at the beginning were hampered by reluctance about this,
but seeing they were thus minded, the Saviour gave them, a rich gathering from the
fragments: and teacheth us too thereby, that we, on expending a little for the glory of
God, shall receive richer grace according to the saying of Christ, Good measure, pressed
down and shaken together and running over, shall they give into your bosom. We must not be
slothful therefore unto the communion of love to the brethren, but rather advance unto
good resoluteness, and put as far as possible from us the cowardice and fear that dispose
us to inhospitality and, confirmed in hope through faith in the power of God to multiply
little things too, let us open our bowels to the needy, according to the appointment of
the Law, for He says, Thou shalt open thy bowels 10 wide unto thy needy brother within
thee. For when wilt thou be found merciful, if thou remainest hard in this life? when wilt
thou fulfil the commandment, if thou sufferest the time of being able to do it to slip by
in idleness? Remember the Psalmist saying. For in death there is none that remembereth
Thee: in the grave who shall confess to Thee? For what fruit is there yet of the dead, or
how shall one of them that have gone down into the pit remember God by fulfilling His
Commandments? For God closed upon him, as it is written.

Therefore did the most wise Paul too instruct us, writing to certain, While we have
opportunity let us do good. And these things shall be said for profit from the narrative.
But since we taking what has been said in a spiritual sense (for so we ought, and not
otherwise) said that by the five barley loaves the book of Moses was hinted at, and by the
two little fishes, the wise writings of the holy Apostles: in the gathering together of
the fragments too, I suppose we ought to perceive some mystical and spiritual conception,
agreeing with the order of the account. The Saviour then commanded the multitudes to sit
down, and having blessed, He distributed the bread and the fishes, i. e., through the
ministry of the disciples: but when they that had eaten were miraculously filled, He
commands them to gather together the fragments, and twelve baskets are filled, one (it
seems) for each of the disciples: for so many were they too. What then shall we understand
from thence, save surely this, and truly, that Christ is the President of them that
believe on Him, and nourishes them that come to Him with Divine and heavenly food?
doctrines plainly of the Law and Prophets, Evangelic and Apostolic. But He does not
altogether Himself appear as the Worker of these things, but the disciples minister to us
the grace from above (for it is not they that speak, as it is written, but the Spirit of
the Father which speaketh in them) yet not without reward to the holy Apostles shall be
their labour therein.

For they having dispensed to us the spiritual food, and ministered the good things of our
Saviour, will receive richest recompense and obtain the fullest grace of bounty from God.
For this and nothing else, I think, is the meaning of the gathering together of a
basketful by each at the commandment of Christ, after their toils and the service expended
upon the feasters. But there is no doubt, that after them the things typically signified
will pass also to the rulers of the holy Churches. 14 The men therefore, when they had
seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth the Prophet that should come
into the world. They marvel at the sign who know how to approve things God-befitting, and
regulate themselves by human reason rather than are diseased with unreason befitting the
beasts, as were the blasphemous Jews, who, when they ought to have profited by the
publicity of the things wrought, lost even the power of right judgment. For they deemed
that Jesus ought now to be stoned also, because He so often appeared as a Worker of
miracles. Superior then, and that in no small degree, to the folly of those men, are they
who marvel, soberly persuaded by this one great miracle, that He it surely was Whose
coming into the world as a Prophet was foretold. But observe, how great a difference hence
appears, I mean, between the race of Israel, and those situate out of Judaea; for the one,
although they were spectators of many things, and those not unworthy of admiration, are
not only hard of heart and inhuman, but also desire unjustly to slay Him Who was zealous
to save them, driving Him with their wild folly from their city and country: while they
who dwelt away from Jerusalem, and hence signify the race of aliens, from one miracle
alone glorify Him, and nobly determine that their conceptions of Him should be received
with faith unhesitatingly. From all these things, was Israel shewn to be self-condemned
and self-invited to her final just rejection, and that it was due to the Gentiles to
obtain at length their share of mercy from above and love through Christ.

15 When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take Him by force to make Him a
King, He departed again into the mountain Himself Alone. Most praiseworthy judgment would
one give, and full rightly, to those who had been easily brought by the great miracle to
believe, that it was indeed befitting that their very choicest should be Christ's, and
their chiefest offered to Him as an honour. For what else but this does their desire to
choose Him for their King signify to us? But among other things one may admire this too;
for Christ is made an example to us of contempt of glory, in that He flees from those who
desire to give Him due honour, and refuses a kingdom that highest earthly prize, although
to Him it was in truth no object of envy, in that He with the Father reigneth over all
things, yet giveth He to them too who look for the hope to come, to understand that little
to them is worldly greatness, and that it is not good to accept honours in this life, that
is, in the world, though they offer themselves, that they may mount up to honour from God.
For unseemly is it in truth that they should wish to shine in these things, who are
pressing on to the Divine grace, and thirsting for everlasting glory.

We must then eschew the love of glory, sister and neighbour of arrogance, and not far
distant from its borders. And illustrious honour in this present life let us eschew us
hurtful, let us rather seek for a holy lowliness, giving way to one another as the blessed
Paul too ad-monisheth, saying, Be each among you so minded according to what was also in
Christ Jesus; Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be Equal with God,
but emptied Himself, taking servant's form, made in the likeness of men, and being found
in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the
Cross: wherefore God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the 11 Name which is above every
Name. Seest thou how His voluntary abasement hath a glorious consummation, and His lowly-
mindedness shews itself a root of many good things to us? For the Only-Begotten being in
the Form of God the Father hath humbled Himself, being made Man for our sakes, but even
though He appeared in this life with Flesh, yet He remained not lowly: for He hastes
backto His ancient Dignity and to His God-befitting glory, even though He became Man: this
same way may one suppose will it be as to us too. For when we bring ourselves down from
the empty heights of the present life and seek low things, then shall we surely receive in
return the glory from above, and mount up unto being gods by grace, receiving after
likeness so to say to Him Who is truly and by Nature Son, the being called children of
God. And that I may say something akin to the subject before us, let us refuse, if it
offer itself, excellency upon earth, the mother of all honour, if we mind heavenly things,
and live for things above rather than those on the earth.

But our discourse is not devoid of spiritual thought, therefore we will repeat, summing up
as it were the whole force of what has been done, and again going through from the
beginning the account before us. For so will it become clear to us what is about to be
said, specially as the blessed Evangelist hath added, as though hinting at something
necessary and not to be rejected, that He withdrew into the mountain Himself Alone.
Therefore rejecting the cruelty of the Jews, Christ began to depart from Jerusalem, which
plainly is, I have forsaken Mine House, I have left Mine heritage. When He had crossed the
sea of Tiberias, and was very far removed from their folly, He goes up into a mountain
together with His disciples. This we said signified the impassable so to say and
impracticable nature of the way to Him unto the Jews, and Christ's withdrawal from them in
anger at His Passion, for a season, that is, the fit time, and that Christ will be
manifest, together with His disciples, when He departs from Judaea, and goes unto the
Gentiles, transferring His grace to them. From the mountain did He look on them that
followed Him, and moreover take thought for their food. And this again we said signified
as it were typically, the supervision from above which is due to the Saints according to,
The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and that Christ is not without thought for
them that fear Him.

Next much people were miraculously fed with the five loaves and two little fishes; of
which we defined that they ought to be conceived to be the writings of the Saints old and
new set by the Apostles before them that love Christ. Moreover, that the choir of the
disciples will receive from God the rich fruit of their ministry to usward, and after
them, the overseers of the holy churches of God: for the type was in the beginning to all
in them. Next the spectators marvel at the miracles, and devise to take Jesus by force for
a king. This He understanding, departs alone into the mountain, as it is written; for when
Christ was marvelled at by the Gentiles, as Wonder-worker and God, when all enrolled 12
Him their King and Lord, then was He received up Alone into Heaven, no one at all
following Him thither. For He, the Firstfruits of the dead, hath gone up Alone into the
great and truer mountain, according as is said by the Psalmist, Who shall ascend into the
hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a
pure heart. For such an one shall follow Christ, and shall go up into the spiritual
mountain also, at the time of the Kingdom of Heaven.

But He hath withdrawn into the mountain, that is, hath gone up into Heaven, not refusing
to reign over them that believed on Him, but delaying the time of His more manifest
kingdom, until His return to us from above, when He shall descend in the glory of the
Father, no longer by miracles, as before, known to be truly and by Nature Lord, but by
God-befitting glory confessed that He is undoubtedly King. Therefore (for I will say it
again briefly, compressing the multitude of words), when by His miracles He was believed
on and acknowledged to be God, having gone away from the Jewish people, then do all press
forward to receive Him for their King, but He ascends into Heaven Alone, laying up for its
fitting time the more open manifestation of His Kingdom. 16, 17 And when even was come,
His disciples went down unto the sea, and entered into a ship and went over the sea unto
Capernaum. The first sign having been miraculously accomplished, His flight and withdrawal
are economically found to be the root again and occasion of another, and the Wonderworker
proceeds, as it is written, from might to might. For since He was being sought as King by
them who were astonished at that great miracle, and was Himself refusing worldly honours
according to the preceding account; it was altogether necessary that He should depart from
the place, yea, rather from their whole country. In order then that He might seem to have
sailed away, and might relax somewhat the intensity of the seekers, He orders the
disciples to depart before Him, but Himself stays, advancing opportunely unto the next
miracle. For it was His most earnest endeavour, by every occasion and act, to confirm the
mind of the Apostles in their faith to Himward. For since they were to be teachers of the
earth, and to shine forth as lights in the world, as Paul saith, He necessarily led them
to all things that would profit them. For this was to shew kindness not on them alone, but
to those also who should be led by them unto the unerring apprehension of Him.

But why (will some one perchance say) after that miracle, is the Power of Jesus to walk on
the very sea immediately introduced? Such an one shall hear a very credible cause. For
when He desired to feed the multitudes, Philip and Andrew supposed that He would be
powerless thereto, the one saying that no small sum of money would barely suffice them for
just a little enjoyment, the other telling that five loaves and two small fishes were
found with one of the lads, nay that what was found was nothing to so great a multitude;
and from all (so to speak) their words, they thought that He could do nothing out of the
due course of our affairs:----needs, in order that He might free Himself from so petty a
conception, and might bring the still feeble mind of the Apostles to learn, that He doth
all things wondrously which He willeth, unrestrained by the nature of things, the
necessary order of things not hampering Him in the least, does He place under His Feet the
humid nature of the waters, albeit unpractised to lie under the bodies of men, for all
things were possible, as to God. Evening then being now come, and the time abating the
vigilance of those who were seeking for Him, the choir of the holy disciples goes down to
the sea, and began to sail away immediately, obeying in all things their God and Teacher,
and that without delay.

18 And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them, and the sea arose by reason of a
great wind that blew. Many things at once are being profitably contrived, and the
circumstances drive the disciples to a more zealous search after the Saviour. For the deep
darkness of the night troubles them, hovering like smoke upon the raving waves, and takes
from them all knowledge of whither at length to steer. Moreover the fierceness of winds
troubles them not a little, riding on the waves with a rushing noise, and raising the
billows to unwonted height. Yea, and though these things had taken place, Jesus (it says)
was not yet come to them: for herein was their special danger, and the absence of Christ
from the voyagers was working increase of their fear. They therefore must needs be
tempest-tost, who are not with Jesus, but are cut off, or seem to be absent from Him
through their departure from His holy laws, and severed because of sin from Him Who is
able to save. If then it be heavy to be in spiritual darkness, if grievous to be swallowed
up in the bitter sea of pleasures, let us receive Jesus: for this will deliver us from
dangers, and from death in sin. The figure of what has been said will be seen in what
happened, He will therefore surely come to His disciples.

19, 20 So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus
walking on the sea and drawing nigh unto the ship; and they were afraid. But He saith unto
them, It is I, be not afraid. When they are separated by great interval from the land, and
it was like that they in their trouble would no way be saved (for they were now in the
midst of the sea) then Christ thrice longed for appears to them. For thus could He give
most welcome salvation to those in danger, when fear had already cut off all hope of life.
But He appears to them miraculously (for so was it ordered to their greater profit) and
they are astonished beholding Jesus going through the midst of the sea and upon the very
waters, and make the miracle an addition to their fear. But Christ immediately relieves
them from their misfortunes, saying, I am, be not afraid. For need, need must all disquiet
be away, and they be openly superior to all danger, to whom Christ is now present. We
shall see then by this again, that we ought to have a spirit courageous and manly in
temptations, and endurance intense from hope in Christ, confirmed unto good confidence in
our being surely saved, even though many be the fears of temptation that pour around us.

For observe that Christ does not appear to those in the boat immediately on their setting
sail, nor at the commencement of their dangers, but when they are many furlongs off from
the land. For not when the condition which harasses us first begins, does the grace of Him
who saves visit us, but when the fear is at its height, and the danger now shews itself
mighty, and we are found, so to say, in the midst of the waves of afflictions: then
unlooked for does Christ appear, and puts away our fear, and will free us from all danger,
by His Ineffable Power changing the dread things into joy, as it were a calm. 21 They
therefore would receive Him into the ship, and immediately the ship was at the land
whither they were going. The Lord not only releases the voyagers from dangers, wondrously
shining on them, but also frees them both from toil and sweat, by His God-befitting Power
thrusting forward the ship on to the opposite shore. For they were expecting that by
rowing on still, they should with difficulty be able to reach the end, but He releases
them from these their toils, revealing Himself to them in a very little time the Worker of
many miracles to their full assurance. When then Christ appears and beams upon us, we
shall without any labour succeed even against our hope, and we who are in danger through
not having Him, shall have no more need of toil to be able to accomplish what is
profitable for us, when He is present. Christ then is our deliverance from all danger, and
the accomplishment of achievements beyond hope to them that receive Him.

But since we have discoursed on every portion of the subject singly, come and let us,
joining the meaning hereof with the connexion of the preceding portions, work out the
spiritual interpretation. We said then that Jesus ascended into Heaven as into a mountain,
that is to say, being received up, after His resurrection from the dead. But when this has
taken place, then His disciples alone and by themselves, a type of Ecclesiastical teachers
in succession throughout all time, swim through the billows of this present life as a kind
of sea, meeting with varied and great temptations, and enduring no contemptible dangers of
teaching at the hands of those who oppose the faith and war against the Gospel preaching:
but they shall be freed both from their fear and every danger, and shall rest from their
toils and misery, when Christ shall appear to them hereafter too in God-befitting Power,
and having the whole world under His Feet. For this I deem His walking on the sea
signifies, since the sea is often taken as a type of the world by Divine Scripture, as it
is said in the Psalms, This great and wide sea, there are things creeping innumerable,
both small and great beasts. When Christ then cometh in the glory of His Father, as it is
written, then shall the ship of the holy Apostles, that is, the Church, and they that sail
therein, i.

e., they who through faith and love toward God are above the things of the world, without
delay and without all toil, gain the land, whither they were going. For it was their aim
to attain unto the Kingdom of Heaven, as to a fair haven. And the Saviour confirms this
understanding of all that has been said, in that he says to His Disciples at one time, A
little while and ye shall no more see Me, and again a little while and ye shall see Me, at
another again, Tribulation shall ye have in the world, but be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world. But in the night the Lord cometh down from the mountain and visiteth
His disciples who are watching, and they look on Him coming, not without fear (for they
tremble) that something needful for our understanding may in this too be made known unto
us. For He shall descend from Heaven, as in the night, the world yet sleeping and
slumbering in much sin. Therefore to us too doth He say, Watch therefore, for ye know not
what hour your Lord doth come. The parable too of the Virgins will no less teach us this.
For He says that five were wise, five foolish: but while the Bridegroom tarried, they all
slumbered and slept: and at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh,
go ye out to meet Him. Seest thou how at midnight the Bridegroom is announced to us?

And what the cry is, and the mode of the meeting, the Divine Paul will make known, saying
at one time, For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a summons, with voice of
archangel, with the trump of God, at another of the saints who are raised up, WE which are
alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in
the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. But the disciples being smitten with fear,
albeit they saw Him coming, and were found in toil and watching, signifies that the Judge
will come terrible to all, and that the righteous man will surely quake within himself,
proven as by fire, albeit ever foreseeing Him Who was to come, and not shrinking from
toils in virtue, nourished in vigilance alike and good watching. But the Lord doth not
enter into the ship with His disciples, as though He were going to sail with them, but
rather moveth the ship on to the land. For Christ will not appear co-working any more with
those who honour Him, unto their achievement of virtue, but to give to them that have
already achieved their looked-for end.

22, 23 The morrow, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there
was none other boat there save that one whereinto His disciples were entered, and that
Jesus went not with His disciples into the boat, yet that His disciples had gone away,
howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread,
after that the Lord had given thanks. The miracle does not escape notice, I mean Jesus
walking on. the very sea, although it took place by night and in the dark, and was ordered
in secret. But the crowd of those who were wont to follow Him perceives, assured (as is
probable) by much watching, that He had neither sailed with His disciples, nor had crossed
in any other ship. For there was there the Apostles' ship alone, which they took and went
away before Him. Nought then is hidden of what is good even though it be performed in
secret by any, and here we see that that is true, Nothing is secret that shall not be made
manifest, neither hid that shall not be known and come abroad. I say then that he who
desireth to track the footsteps of Christ, and, as far as man can, to be moulded after His
Pattern, ought not to be eager to live in much boasting, nor when he practises virtue to
be led away in pursuit of praise, nor if he enter upon an extraordinary and exceeding
disciplined life, should he desire to glory immoderately thereat, but should desire to be
seen alone by the Eyes of the Deity, Who revealeth hidden things, and that which is
performed in secret bringeth He into clearest apprehension.

24 When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there neither His disciples, they also
took shipping and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus. These men follow Him, marvelling
perchance at His miracles, yet not receiving any profit from them unto the duty of faith,
but as though they were making some return to the Wonder-worker by merely bestowing on Him
a not undesired praise. For this is a dreary disease of a mind and soul which is never
accustomed to be led to the choice of what is profitable for her. The reason why this was
so with them was, that they delighted solely in the pleasures of the flesh, and jumped
eagerly at the meanest temporal food, rather than hasten after spiritual goods, and
endeavour to gain what would support them to life eternal. This you will learn clearly by
what follows too. 25 And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said
unto Him, Rabbi when camest Thou hither?

Their speech takes the form of being that of those who love Him and feigns sweetness, but
is convicted of being exceeding senseless and childish. For they ought not on meeting with
so great a teacher, to have talked to no purpose, and taken no pains to learn anything.
For what was the need of being eager to ask Him, when He came there? what good would they
be likely to get from knowing? We must then seek wisdom from the wise, and let a prudent
silence be preferred to undisciplined words. For the disciple of Christ bids that our
speech be seasoned with salt: and another of the wise exhorts us to this, saying, My son,
if thou hast a word of understanding, answer, if not, lay thy hand upon thy mouth. And how
evil it is to be condemned for an undisciplined tongue, we shall know from another: for he
says, If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth
his own heart, this man's religion is vain.

26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, I say unto you, ye seek Me, not because ye saw
the miracle, but because ye ate of the loaves and were filled. We will say something
common, yet worn by little use. Great teachers are often wont to be not slightly angry,
when they are questioned about vain and useless matters. And we shall find them so, not
out of haughtiness, but rather from annoyance at the folly of the questioners. Of us
therefore and those like us I think that this is not unrightly said: but the Saviour
inflicts a warm rebuke upon those who made those enquiries, for speaking uninstructedly,
and unwisely enquiring not because it was their duty to seek out the things whereby they
might become honest and good, but because they followed Him for carnal reward and that a
most mean one. For what is less than daily food, and that not sumptuous? We must then
practise piety towards Christ and Love of Him, not that we may obtain ought of carnal
goods but that we may gain the salvation that is through Him; and let us not say good
words to Him, as these say Rabbi, nor devise fair-speaking as a foundation of gain and
boundless ingathering of riches. Truly he that attempts such things, will not be ignorant
that he shall encounter Christ Who keenly convicteth him, and revealeth his hidden
wickedness.

It is meet again to admire also the economy herein. For when He saw that they were
enveloped with the afore-mentioned disease, as a Physician skilful and master of his art,
He devised a twofold medicine for them, entwining the helpful reproof with most glorious
miracle. The miracle then we shall find in His knowing their thoughts; and in the Wonder-
worker not telling them what they sought not out of piety to know, you will behold the
reproof. And the advantage is twofold. For in that He knows perfectly their devices and
has accurate perception thereof, He shews that they are without understanding, in that
they think to escape the Divine Eye, while they heap up wickedness in their heart, and
practise sweet words with their tongue. But this is the part of One Who persuades them to
leave off this their disease, and to cease from no slight sin. For outrageous is he and
lawless, who hath this conception of God. In usefully convicting them of sinning, He
restrains in some sort the future course of evil. For that which has no hindrance, creeps
on and extends itself; but when caught in the fact, it is well-nigh ashamed, and like a
rope contracts into itself. Therefore the Lord profiteth them by reproving also, and by
those things whereby one thinks that He smites, by these very things He is seen to be
their Benefactor.

We must then hold that even though some flatter or with mild words wheedle the rulers of
the Churches, yet are not sound concerning the faith, it is not meet that they should be
carried away by their fawnings nor by way of payment for their applause lend in turn to
them who need correcting, silence in regard to their faults: but we ought rather boldly to
rebuke them, and to persuade them to change for the better, or at least hereby if so be to
profit others, according to that spoken by Paul, Them that sin rebuke before all, that the
rest also may fear. This then for the subjects separately: but that they are in connexion,
and of necessity follow those before considered, I think I ought to shew. We said then
that our Saviour's coming down from the mountain typified His second and future Coming to
us from Heaven, and we added as in summary, that He appeared to His disciples while they
were watching, and yet toiling, and released them from their fear, and brought the ship at
once to land. And what is hence pourtrayed to us, as in a type, we have there declared.
But now observe, that after Jesus had come down from the mountain, certain miss following
Him, and come to Him at last. For they come on the day following, the Evangelist having
not without care added this also. Then on meeting with Him, they endeavour to wheedle Him
with good words: but Christ chides them, bringing upon them hot and keen reproof, that we
might consider this again, that after the Coming of our Lord to us from Heaven, most vain
and profitless unto men is the search after good things, nor will the desire to follow Him
find any fitting season. Yea even though certain approach Him, thinking to appease Him
with smoothest words, they shall meet the Judge no longer mild and gentle, but reproving
and avenging.

For thou wilt see the flattery of them that are reproved, and the reproof itself in the
words of the Saviour, when He saith, Many will say to Me in that Day, to wit, the Day of
Judgment, Lord, Lord, did we not in Thy Name cast out devils? But says He, Then will I
profess unto them, Verily I say unto you, I never knew you. For ye sought Me not purely
(saith He) nor loved to excel in holiness, for thereby would I have known you, but since
ye practised piety in semblance only and in mere imaginaries for the purpose of gain,
justly do I confess that I have not known you. What then in that passage is Lord, Lord,
here is Rabbi. To whomsoever therefore punishment is a bitter thing, let him not fall into
inertness 13 nor be manifoldly infirm in transgression, looking to the goodness of God,
but let him prepare his works for his going forth, as it is written, and make it fit for
himself in the field, i. e., while he is in the world. For the Saviour interpreted that
the field is the world. Let him prepare to shew holiness and righteousness before the
Divine Judgment Seat.

For he will behold no unseasonably clement Judge, nor yet yielding to entreaties for
mercy, in Him Whom he ought without delay to have obeyed when He was calling him to
salvation, while the time of mercy was granting to him both to beg for forgiveness for his
already past transgressions, and to seek for loving-kindness from God Who saves. 27 Labour
not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life.
Something of this sort doth Paul teach us expanding the discourse universally and more
generally, saying, He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he
that soiveth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. For he says that
they sow to the flesh who giving as it were full rein to the pleasures of the flesh,
advance at full speed to whatever they will, by no means distinguishing what is profitable
for them from what is hurtful and injurious, nor in any way accustomed to approve what
seems good unto the Law-giver, but heedlessly hurried off to that alone which is pleasant
and agreeable, and preferring nothing to things seen. Again he affirms that they sow to
the Spirit, who expend the whole aim of their mind on those things wherein the Holy Ghost
willeth us to excel, employing a mind so intense toward the cultivation of good things,
that, did not voice of nature not to be disregarded constrain them to minister needful
food to the flesh, they would not endure to descend even to this. I think then that we
ought to take no forethought whatever for the flesh for the lusts thereof, but rather to
apply ourselves to what is most needful, and to be zealous in practising those things,
which bring us to the everlasting and Divine Life. For admiration for the delights of the
body, and the esteeming nothing better than the superfluities of the belly, is truly
brutish and akin to the extremest folly.

But to apply ourselves to good things, and earnestly to strive to excel in virtues, and to
be subject to the laws of the Spirit, and with all readiness to seek after the things of
God, which are able to support us unto salvation:----I will grant that this truly
beseemeth him who knoweth his own nature, and is not ignorant that he hath been made a
reasonable creature after the Image of Him that created him. Therefore as the Saviour
somewhere saith, Take we no thought, what shall we eat? or, what shall we drink? or,
wherewithal shall we be clothed? but considering that the soul is more than meat, and the
body than raiment, let us take thought how the more precious part of us may do well. For
though the body do well, and be fat with succession of delights, it will not profit the
miserable soul; but on the contrary, will work it much harm. For it will depart into the
everlasting fire, since they who have wrought no good, must needs undergo punishment for
it: but if the body have been bridled with due reason, and brought under the law of the
Spirit, both must surely be saved together. It is then most absurd, that for the flesh we
should so take thought, which is but for a time and even now shall perish, as to think
that it ought not to lack any one thing which it loves: and to take care for the soul, by
way of appendix, or as though it were nothing worth; albeit I think we ought to apply
ourselves so much the rather to cares for the soul, as it is of more value than the body.
For so of a truth preferring what surpasses in the comparison to what is inferior, and
giving a just vote in this matter, we shall become holy and wise jurors, and not bestow
upon any other the palm of right reasoning, but rather shall put it upon our own heads.
Let us then, as the Saviour saith, labour not for the meat which perisheth, which when it
hath passed into the belly, and for a very little while deluded the mind with pettiest
pleasure, goeth out into the draught, and is conveyed forth again from the belly.

But the spiritual food which strengthened the heart, keepeth the man unto life
everlasting, which also Christ promiseth to give us, saying, Which the Son of Man shall
give unto you; at once knitting the human with that which is Divine, and connecting the
whole mystery of the economy with Flesh in its order. But He hints, I suppose, at the
Mystic and more Spiritual Food, whereby we live in Him, sanctified in body and soul. But
we shall see Him speaking more openly of this hereafter. The discourse then must be kept
for its fit time and place.

Chapter V. That the Only-Begotten Son is the Impress of the Person of God the Father, and
no other Impress either is, or is conceived of, save He.

which the Son of Man shall give unto you: for Him the Father sealed, God. He was not
ignorant, as God, of the charges that would result from Jewish folly, nor of the reasons
why they were often foolishly enraged. He knew that they would reason in themselves,
looking to the flesh alone, and not conceiving of God the Word therein, Who is This That
seizeth upon God-befitting words? for who can give unto men food that keepeth them unto
everlasting life? for wholly foreign to man's nature is such a thing, and it beseemeth Him
Alone Who is God over all. The Saviour therefore defends Himself beforehand, and by
seasonable arguments, shames their looked-for shameless talk. For He says that the Son of
Man will give them the food which nourisheth them unto everlasting life, and immediately
affirmed that He is sealed by the Father. Sealed again is either put for anointed (for he
who is anointed is sealed), or as shewing that He has been by Nature formed unto the
Father. Just as if He had said, I am not unable to give you food which endureth and
bringeth up unto everlasting life and delight. For though I seem as one of you, that is
Man with flesh, yet was I anointed and sealed by God the Father unto an exact Likeness
with Him. For ye shall see (He saith) that He is in Me, and I again in Him Naturally, even
though for your sakes I was born Man of a woman, according to the Ineffable order of the
economy.

For I can do all things in God-befitting Authority and do not in any way come short of the
Might inherent in My Father. And though God the Father giveth you the Spiritual Food,
which preserveth unto everlasting life, it is clear that the Son too will give it, even
though made in Flesh, since He is His Exact Image; the Likeness in every thing being
conceived, not after the lineaments of flesh, nor yet ought conceived of in bodily form,
but in God-befitting glory and Equal Power and royal Authority. But we must observe again,
that when He says that the Son of Man will give the things God-befitting and that He hath
been sealed unto the Image of God the Father, He endureth not the division of him that
separateth the Temple of the Virgin from the true Sonship, but defines Himself and willeth
to be conceived of again as One. For One in truth over us is Christ, bearing as it were
the royal purple His Own Robe, I mean His Human Body, or His Temple, to wit of Soul and
Body; since One too of Both is Christ.

But, most excellent sir, will the Christ-opposer again say, give the truth the power of
overcoming: deal not subtillywith the saying, dishonourably turning it about,
whithersoever thou wilt. Lo clearly hereby is the Son proved to be not of the Essence of
the Father, but rather a copy of His Essence. Suppose some such thing (say they) as we
say: A seal or signet impressed on wax, for example, or any other matter fit to receive
it, and engraving a likeness only of itself, is taken away again by him who pressed it on,
having lost no part of itself: so the Father, having imposed and imprinted Himself Wholly
upon the Son in some way by a most accurate Likeness, from Himself hath He surely no part
of His Essence, nor is conceived of as therefrom but a mere image and accurate likeness.
Let him that is zealous for knowledge see that now too is our opponent darting on us, like
a serpent, and rears aloft his head surcharged with venom: but He Who shattereth the heads
of the Dragon, will shatter it too, and will give us power to escape his manifold
stubbornness. Let him then tell us, who has just been dinning us with dreadful words, Does
not the seal or signet, which is made (it may be) of wood or of iron or of gold, full
surely seal with some impress those things whereon it comes, and will it not be and be
conceived of as a seal apart from the impress? But I suppose that any one of our opponents
too, even against his will constrained by fitness unto the very truth would confess that
it will by all means seal with an impress; and without an impress, according to fair
reasoning, not at all. Since then, as the Divine Scripture testifieth to us, the Son is
the Impress of the Person of God the Father, in that He is in It and of It by Nature,
whereupon is Himself impressed, or through whom else will the Father seal His Own Impress?
For no one will say that the Father is not altogether in God-befitting Form, which is the
Son, the Form of Him That begat Him; Whom if any behold spiritually, it is manifest that
he will see the Father.

Wherefore He says that He too is in Him Naturally, even though He be conceived to be of
Him by reason of His Own Existence: as the brightness for instance, is in the brightening
and of the brightening, and something different, according to the mode of conception, and
again not different, as viewed in relation to it, because it is said to be of it, and
again in it. And not I suppose in the way of division and complete essential partition are
these things considered of: for they are inherent in respect of identity of essence in
those things whence they are, and of which they are believed to be, tending forth
according to expression in idea to something else, of their own, yet not separate. The
Word of the Essence of the Father, not bare Word, nor without Flesh, is sealed then by the
Father, yea rather through Him are sealed those things which are brought to likeness with
God, as far as can be, as we understand in that which certain say, The light of Thy
Countenance was marked upon us, O Lord.

For he says that the Countenance of God the Father, is the Son, Which is again the
Impress, but the light thereof is the grace which through the Spirit passeth through unto
the creation, whereby we are remoulded unto God through faith, receiving through Him as
with a seal, the conformation unto His Son, Who is the Image of the Father, that our being
made after the Image and Likeness of the Creator, might be well preserved in us. But since
the Son is confessedly the Countenance of God the Father, He will surely be the Impress
too with which God seals. Yea (says our opponent) we believe that God through the Spirit
seals the Saints, but the things that you are bringing forward have no place in the
present question. Wherefore we will recapitulate and say, The seal supposed to be of iron,
or may be gold, impresses its own likeness on the matter whereon it comes, losing nothing
of its own, but by the operation only of its being pressed on does it mark the things that
receive it: thus do we hold that the Son has been sealed by the Father, not having ought
of His Essence but possessing merely an accurate likeness thereof, and being Other than
He, as the image to the archetype.

O boundless folly, and perilous conceit! how easily hast thou forgotten those things just
now gone through. For we said that the Son was the Impress of the Father, and that with
Him was sealed other than He, and not Himself, lest He be thought to be His Own Impress.
But thou, having not rightly spurned our argument hereon, dost not blush to put about Him
a likeness of operation only. In image only then will the Son be God according to you, and
by Nature not at all, but merely in that He was fashioned and well formed after the
Likeness of Him That begat; haply no longer of Him That begat: for it is time that ye
should on these accounts take away the begetting also, yea rather there is every need even
if ye will it not. On the duty of believing that the Son is begotten of the Father, we
have already expended much argument, or shall do so in its place. But it were more fitting
that we should proceed to the matter in hand, putting forward to those who are accustomed
unrestrainedly to shameless talk the question, Will they not surely say that that which is
given may also be taken away, and confess that that which is added can altogether be also
lost? for does it not at some time happen that every thing is rejected, which is not
firmly rooted in any by nature? It is evident, even should any of them not assent thereto.

Some time then or other, according to the argument of possibility, the Son will be bereft
of His Likeness. For He was sealed (as ye say) by the mere Operation of His Father upon
Him, not having the stability that'is of natural Endowments, but conceived of and existing
wholly other than His Father, and completely severed from His Essence. Doing then very
excellently and fore-seeing matters by most cunning reasoning did ye secure the Father, by
saying that He gives nought of Himself to the Son, save that He vouchsafes Him Likeness
only, lest ought of passion should be conceived of as about Him. For this is your foolish
mystery. For belike ye were ignorant that God the Father Who doeth all things without
passion, will also beget without passion, and is superior to fire (for the argument brings
us down to this necessity) which without passion or corporeal division, begets the burning
which is of it. Let those then hear who are zealous in fancies only, and account
unrestrained blasphemy to be not an unholy thing, but rather a virtue, that if they say
that the Son is classed with the Father, in the propriety of likeness alone, He will abide
in no secure possession of good things, but will wholly risk His being by Nature God, and
will in possibility at least, admit of change for the worse. For there was said to that
governor of Tyre too, words which reason necessitates us to attribute to the person of the
devil, Thou art the seal of the likeness:

but he to whom that speech is addressed, is found to have fallen from the likeness. Thou
seest then, and clearly too, by such instances, that the mere being in the likeness of God
is no security for an unmoved stability in things spiritual, nor yet does it suffice to
perfect endurance in the good things in which they are, to have been duly sealed unto the
Nature of the Maker. For they too fall, and are borne headlong, oft-times changing into a
worse mind, than they had at the beginning. It is then possible, according to this
argument, that the Son, attaining to Likeness with the Father by sameness of work only,
and not firm fixed by the propby Nature, but having His stability in the mere motions of
His Own Will, should undergo change, or, though He do not suffer it, should find the not
so suffering the result of admirable purpose, and not rather the steadfastness of Native
stability, as God.

What then, most noble sirs, is the Son no longer God in truth? And if according to you, He
is so found, why do we worship Him? why is He co-glorified with God the Father? why is He
borne, as God, upon the highest Powers? Are then with us the Holy Seraphim themselves too
ignorant that they do greatly err from what is fit, in glorifying Him Who is not by Nature
God? They err, it seems, in calling Him Who is honoured with equal honour Lord of Sabaoth.
Or shall we not say, that the highest Powers, Principalities Thrones and Dominions and
Lordships, essay, after their power, to appear conformed to God? For if the so small
animal of the earth, in respect of that creation, I mean man, be honoured with such
beauty, what reason has one not for fully thinking, that to them who are far better than
we, far better things are allotted? How then do they both call Him Lord of Sabaoth, and
stand around as a guard, as ministering to the King of the universe? why sitteth He with
the Father, and that on His Right Hand, the bond with the Lord, the creature with the
Creator? For is it not fitter to bring that which by means of heed and wariness is free
from passion and perfect, to the level of things originate rather than of God by Essence
Who hath Naturally the inability to suffer? But it is manifest, though they confess it
not. Who then will endure these babblers, or how will they not with reason hear, Woe to
them that are drunken without wine?

But perchance they will Be ashamed of the absurdities of such arguments, and will betake
themselves to this, and say, that the Son was sealed by the Father unto a most accurate
Likeness, and is Unchangeable in Nature, even though He be not from the Father. How then,
tell me, will that which is not of God by Nature, bear His Attribute, and that be found
not without share-essentially of the Excellences of the Divine Essence, which proceeded
not therefrom, after the true mode of generation? For it is, I suppose, clear and
confessed by all, that the Properties of the Godhead are wholly unattainable by the
created nature, and that the qualities belonging to It by Nature will not exist in ought
else that is, in equal and exact manner: as for example, Immutability is in God Naturally;
in us by no means so, but a kind of stability likens us thereto, through heed and
vigilance not suffering us readily to go after those things which we ought not. But if it
were possible, that according to them, ought of Divine Attributes should be in any who is
not of the Divine Nature Essentially, and that they should be so in him as they are in It;
what (tell me) is to prevent all things God-befitting from at length coming down even upon
those who are not by nature gods? For if one of them unhindered finds place (I mean
Immutability) there will be room for the rest also, and what follows? utter confusion. For
will not the superior pass below, and the inferior mount up into the highest place?

And what is there yet to hinder even the Most High God from being brought down to our
level, and us again from being gods even as the Father, when there no longer is or is seen
any difference intervening, if the qualities which belong to God Only pass to us, and are
in us naturally? And since God the Father contains in Himself Alone, as it seems, those
Properties whereby we should be as He, we have remained men, and the angels likewise with
us what they are, not mounting up to That which is above all. For if God should reveal
Himself not Jealous, by putting His Own Attribute into the power of all, many surely would
be those who were by nature gods, able to create earth and heaven and all the rest of the
creation. For the Excellencies of Him Who is by Nature the Creator having once passed on,
how will not they be as He is? or what prevents that which is radiant with equal goods
from appearing in equal glory? But the God-opposer surely sees completely, how great the
multitude of strange devices which is hence heaped up upon us and exclaims against the
mislearning that is in him. The Godhead then will remain in Its Own Nature, and the
creature will partake of It through spiritual relationship, but will never mount up unto
the Dignity that unchangeably belongs to It. But our argument being thus arranged, we
shall find that Immutability exists Essentially in the Son:

He is then God by Nature, and of necessity of the Father, lest ought that is not of Him by
Nature should reach to an equal dignity of Godhead. But since they hold out to us as an
incontestable argument their saying that the Son is other than the Father, as Image to
archetype, and through this subtlety think to sever Him from the Essence of Him That begat
Him, they shall be caught in no slight folly, and to have studied their assertion to no
purpose, of any force in truth to accomplish fairly what they have at heart. For what
further are they vainly contending for, or whence do they from only the distinctness of
His own Being, sever the Son from the Father? For the fact that He exists Personally does
not (I suppose) prove that He is diverse from the Essence of Him who begat Him. For He is
confessedly of the Father, as being of His Essence; He is again in the Father, by reason
of His being in Him by Nature; and you will hear Him say, at one time, I proceeded forth
from the Father, and am come, again at another time, I am in the Father and the Father in
Me. For He will not withdraw into a Personality wholly and completely separated, seeing
that the Holy Trinity is conceived of as being in One Godhead; but being in the Father, in
mode or position undivided as to consubstantiality, He will be conceived of as likewise of
Him, according to the Procession which ineffably manifesteth Him in respect of beaming
forth. For He is Light of Light. Therefore in the Father and of the Father, alike
Undivided and separate, in Him as Impress, but as Image to Archetype will He be conceived
of in His Own Person. But we will not simply discourse concerning this, but will confirm
it by example from the Law, on all sides fortifying the force of truth against those who
think otherwise.

The Law then appointed to the children of Israel to give to every man a ransom for his
poll, half a didrachm. But one stater contains a didrachm. Yea and herein again was
shadowed out to us Christ Himself, Who offered Himself for all, as by all, a Ransom to God
the Father, and is understood in the one drachma, but not separately from the other,
because that in the one coin, as we said before, two drachmae are contained. Thus may both
the Son be conceived of in respect of the Father, and again the Father in respect of the
Son, Both in One Nature, but Each Separate in part, as existing in His own Person, yet not
wholly severed, nor One apart from the Other. And as in the one coin were two drachmae,
having equal bulk with one another, and in no ways one less than the other; so shalt thou
conceive of the in nought differing Essence of the Son in respect of God the Father, and
again of the Father in respect of the Son, and thou shalt at length receive wholesome
doctrine upon all points spoken of concerning Him.

28, 29 They said therefore unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the work of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Not of good purpose is the enquiry, nor yet as one
might suppose does the question proceed from desire of knowledge on their part, but is
rather the result of exceeding arrogance. For as if they would deign to learn nought
beyond what they knew already, they well nigh say something of this sort, Sufficient, good
Sir, to us are the writings of Moses: we know as much as we need of the things at which he
who is skilful in the works of God ought to aim. What new thing then wilt Thou supply, in
addition to those which were appointed at that time? what strange thing wilt Thou teach,
which was not shewn us before by the Divine words? The enquiry then is rather of folly,
than really of a studious will. You have something of this kind in blessed Matthew too.
For a certain young man, overflowing with not the most easily-gotten abundance of wealth,
was intimating that he would enter upon the due service of God. When he came to Jesus, he
eagerly enquired what he should do, that he might be found an heir of everlasting life. To
whom the Lord saith, Thou knowest surely the commandments, Do not kill, Do not commit
adultery, Do not bear false witness, and the like. But he, as lacking none of these
things, or even not accepting an exposition of teaching which fell far short of his
existing practice, says. All these things have I kept from my youth up, what lack I yet?
what then he did joining haughtiness to ignorance in his question, what lack I yet, the
same do these too through their over much arrogance alike and self-conceit, saying, What
shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

A good thing then is a low conceit, and it is the work of a noble soul, to commit to her
teachers the thorough knowledge of what is profitable, and so to yield to their lessons,
which they think it right to instil, seeing they are superior in knowledge. For how shall
they be accepted at all as teachers, if they have not superiority of understanding above
what the mind of their pupils hath, since their advance will scarcely end at the measure
of their masters' knowledge, according to the word of the Saviour, The disciple is not
above his Master, and, It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master? This is the
work of God, that ye believe on Him whom HE sent. Most severely doth the Lord, even though
secretly as yet and obscurely, attack the folly of the questioners. For one would suppose,
looking merely at the simple meaning of the words, that Jesus was commanding them nothing
else, save to believe on Him: but on examining the intent of the words, he will see that
they refer to something else. For full well does He arrange His discourse suitably to the
folly of the questioners. For they, as though they learnt sufficiently through the Law how
to work what was well-pleasing to God, blasphemously neglect the teaching of our Saviour,
saying, what shall we do, that we might work the work of God? But it was necessary that He
should shew them, that they were still very far removed from the worship most pleasing
unto God, and that they knew no whit of the true good things, who cleaving to the letter
of the law, have their mind full of mere types and forms. Therefore with some great
emphasis does He say, opposing the fruit of faith to the worship of the Law, This is the
work of God that ye believe on Him whom HE sent. That is, it is not what YE supposed (He
says) looking to the types alone; but know ye, even though ye will not learn it, that the
Lawgiver took no pleasure in your sacrifices of oxen, nor needest thou to sacrifice sheep,
as though God willed and required this.

For what is frankincense, though it curl in the air in fragrant steam, what will the he-
goat profit (saith He) and the costly offerings of cinnamon? God eateth not the flesh of
bulls, nor yet drinketh He the blood of goats: He knoweth all the fowls of the Heaven, and
the wild beasts of the field are with Him. But He hath hated and despised your feasts, and
will not smell in your solemn assemblies, as Himself saith: nor spake He unto your fathers
concerning whole burnt offerings or sacrifices. Therefore not this is the tvork of God,
but rather that, that ye should believe on Him whom He sent. For of a truth better than
the legal and typical worship is the salvation through faith and the grace that justifieth
than the commandment that condemneth. The work then of the pious soul is faith to Christ-
ward, and more excellent far the zeal for to become wise in the knowledge of Him, than the
cleaving to the typical shadows. You will marvel also at this besides: for whereas Christ
was wont to take no notice of those who questioned Him, tempting Him, He answers this for
the present economically (even though He knew that they would be nothing profited) to
their own condemnation, as He says elsewhere too, If I had not come and spoken unto them,
they had not had sin; but now they have no cloke for their sin. 30, 31 They said therefore
unto Him, What sign doest THOU then, that we may see and believe Thee? what dost Thou
work? our fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written, Bread from Heaven gave He
them to eat.

The disposition of the Jews unveils itself by little and little, although, hidden and as
yet buried in less overt reasonings. For they were saying in their folly, What shall we do
that we might work the works of God? as if, as we said before, they held the commandment
through Moses sufficient to conduct them to all wisdom, whereby they might know how to
perform what was well-pleasing unto God. But their aim being such was concealed, but is
now being unveiled, and by little and little comes forth more plainly. For nothing is
secret, as the Saviour says, that shall not be made manifest. What then (are they saying)
What sign shewest THOU? The blessed Moses was honoured (he says) and with great reason, he
was set forth as a mediator between God and man. Yea and he gave too a sufficient sign,
for all they that were with him ate the manna in the wilderness. But do THOU at length,
since Thou comest to us in a position greater than his, and dost not shrink from adding to
the things decreed of old, with what signs wilt Thou give us a warrant, or what of
wondrous works dost Thou shewing us, introduce Thyself as the Author of more novel
doctrines unto us? Hereby too is our Saviour's word shewn to be true:

for they are convicted by their own words of thinking that they ought to seek Him, not to
admire Him for those things which He had in God-befitting manner wrought, but because they
did eat of the loaves and were filled. For they demand of Him a sign, not any chance one,
but such as (they thought) Moses wrought, when not for one day, but for forty whole years,
he fed the people that came out of Egypt in the wilderness, by the supply of manna. For,
knowing nothing at all (it seems) of the Mysteries in the Divine Scriptures, they did not
consider that it was fit to attribute the marvellous working hereunto to the Divine power
which wrought it, but very foolishly crown the head of Moses for this. They therefore ask
of Christ a sign equal to that, giving no wonder at all to the sign which had been shewn
them for a day, even though it were great, but saying that the gift of food ought to be
extended to them for a long time. For that even so hardly would He shame them into
confessing and agreeing that most glorious was the Power of the Saviour, and His Doctrine
therefore to be received. Manifest then is it even though they do not say it in plain
terms, that they wholly disregard signs, and under pretext of marvelling at them, are
zealous to serve the impure pleasure of the belly.

Chapter VI. Of the manna, that it was a type of Christ's Presence and of the spiritual
graces through Him.

32 Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, not Moses hath given
you the Bread from Heaven, Now too does the Saviour most severely convict them of being
without understanding, and exceedingly ignorant of what is in the Mosaic writings. For
they ought to have known quite clearly that Moses was ministering the things of God to the
people, and again those of the children of Israel to God, and was himself the worker in
none of the miracles, but a minister rather and under-worker of those things which the
Giver to them of all good things willed to do for the benefit of those who had been called
out of bondage. What they then were impiously imagining, this Christ very resolutely cuts
away (for to attribute things which befit and are due to the Divine Nature Alone, to the
honour of men and not rather to It, how is not this replete with folly alike and impiety?)
and in that He deprived the hierophant Moses of the miracle, and withdrew it out of his
hand, it is (I suppose) manifest that He rather attributes the glory of it to Himself
together with the Father, even though He abstained from speaking more openly, by reason of
the uninstructedness of His hearers. For it was a thing truly not contrary to expectation,
that they should rage, as though Moses were insulted by such words, and should be kindled
unto intemperate anger, never enquiring what the truth was, nor recognizing the dignity of
the Speaker, but heedlessly going about to only honour Moses, and not reasonably as it
happened, when he was compared with what excelled him.

Let us learn then, with more judgment and reason, to practise respect towards our holy
fathers and to render, as it is written, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour (for we
shall in no wise injure, if we render what fittingly belongs to each, since the spirits of
the Prophets are subject to the Prophets) but when any discourse about our Saviour Christ
is entered into, then we must needs say, Who in the clouds can be equalled unto the Lord?
or who among the sons of the mighty shall be likened unto the Lord? 33 but My Father
giveth you the True Bread from heaven: for the Bread of God is He which cometh down from
heaven and giveth life unto the world. It was needful not only to remove Moses from God-
befitting Authority, according to their conception, and to shew that he was a minister of
that miraculous working, rather than the bestower of it, but also to lessen the wonder
though miraculously wrought, and to shew that it was nothing at all in comparison with the
greater. For imagine Christ calling out something like this, The great things, sirs, do ye
reckon among the little and meanest, and the beneficence of the Lord of all ye have meted
out with most petty limits. For with no slight folly do ye suppose that the manna is the
Bread from heaven, although it fed the race alone of the Jews in the wilderness, while
there are other nations besides without number throughout the world. And ye supposed that
God willed to shew forth lovingkindness so contracted, as to give food to one people only
(for these were types of universalities, and in the partial was a setting forth of His
general Munificence, as it were in pledge, to those who first received it): but when the
time of the Truth was at our doors, My Father giveth you the Bread from heaven, which was
shadowed forth to them of old in the gift of the manna. For let no one think (saith He)
that that was in truth the Bread from heaven, but rather let him give his judgment in
favour of That, which is clearly able to feed the whole earth, and to give in full life
unto the world.

He accuses therefore the Jew of cleaving to the typical observances, and refusing to
examine into the beauty of the Truth. For not that was, properly speaking, the manna, but
the Only-Begotten Word of God Himself, who proceedeth from the Essence of the Father,
since He is by Nature Life, and quickeneth all things. For since He sprang of the Living
Father, He also is by Nature Life, and since the work of that which is by Nature Life is
to quicken, Christ quickeneth all things. For as our earthly bread which is gotten of the
earth suffereth not the frail nature of flesh to waste away: so He too, through the
operation of the Spirit quickeneth our spirit, and not only so, but also holdeth together
our very body unto incorruption. But since our meditations have once got upon the subject
of manna, it will not be amiss (I think) for us to consider and say some little on it
also, bringing forward out of the Mosaic books themselves severally the things written
thereon. For thus having made the statement of the matter most clear, we shall rightly
discern each of the things signified therein. But we will shew through them all, that the
Very Manna is Christ Himself, understood as given under the type of manna to them of old
by God the Father. The beginning of the oracles thereon, speaks on this wise, On the
fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt, the
whole congregation of the children of Israel were murmuring against Moses and Aaron, and
the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died, stricken by the Lord in
the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots and were eating bread to the full, for ye
have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. The
matter then of the history is clear and very plain, and I do not think it needs any words
to test the obvious meaning: but we will speak of it, looking only to the spiritual
meaning.

The children of Israel then, while still in the country of the Egyptians, by Divine
command were keeping typically their feast to Christ, and having taken their supper of the
lamb, did thus hardly escape the tyranny of Pharaoh's rule and shake off the intolerable
yoke of bondage. Then having miraculously crossed the Red sea, they got into the
wilderness: and there famishing craved flesh to eat, and were dragged down to the
accustomed desire for food: and so they began murmuring against Moses and fall into
repenting of their free gift from God when they ought to have given no small thanks for
it. Egypt then will be darkness, and will signify the condition of the present life, and
the worldly state, wherein we enrolled as in some state, serve a bitter serfdom therein,
working nothing at all to Godward but fulfilling only the works most delightsome to the
Devil, and hasting down unto the pleasures of impure flesh, like clay or stinking mud,
enduring a miserable toil, unpaid, profitless, and pursuing a wretched (so to say) love of
pleasure.

But when the Law of God speaks to our soul, and we behold at length the bitter bondage of
these things, then oh then do we, thirsting after riddance from all evil, come to Christ
Himself, as to the beginning and door of freedom, and provisioned with the security and
grace that come through His Precious Blood, we leave the carnal condition of this life, as
it were a troublous and stormy sea, and, out of all the tumult of the world, we at length
reach a more spiritual and purer state, as it were sojourning in the wilderness. But since
he is not unexercised unto virtue, who is through the Law instructed thereunto, when we
find that we are at length in this case, then we falling into the temptations which try
us, are sometimes devoured by the memory of carnal lusts, and then, when the lust inflames
us mightily, we cry oftentimes out of recklessness, albeit the Divine Law hath called us
to liberty, being as it were in hunger for our old accustomed pleasures, and making slight
account of our toils after temperance, we look upon the bondage of the world as no longer
evil. And in truth, the will of the flesh is sufficient to draw the mind to all
faintheartedness after goodness.

And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold I rain you bread from heaven. In these words you may
very clearly see that which is sung in the Psalms, He gave them bread of heaven; man did
eat angels' bread. But it is, I suppose, evident to all, that of the reasonable Powers in
heaven, none other is the Bread and Food, save the Only Begotten of God the Father. He
then is the True Manna, the Bread from heaven, given to the whole rational creation by God
the Father. But entering into the order of our subject we say this: Observe how the Divine
grace from above draws unto itself the nature of man even though at times sick after its
wonted things, and saves it in manifold wise. For the lust of the flesh like a stone
falling on the mind thrusts it down, and despotically forces it unto its own will; but
Christ brings us round again, as with a bridle, unto longing for better things, and
recovers them that are diseased unto God-loving habit of mind. For lo, lo to them that are
sinking down into carnal pleasures, He promises to give Food from Heaven, the consolation,
that is, through the Spirit, the Spiritual Manna. Through this are we strengthened unto
all endurance and manliness and obtain that we fall not through infirmity into those
things we ought not. The Spiritual Manna therefore, that is, Christ, was strengthening us
before too unto piety.

But since we have once, by reason of need, digressed, I think it well not to leave the
subject uninvestigated, since it is very conducive to our profit. Some one then may
reasonably ask, Why is God who is so Loving to man and so loveth virtue when it behoved
Him to forecome their request, tardy in respect of His Promise: and He nowise punishes
those so perverse men, albeit He punished them afterwards, when they were sick with the
same lusting, and pictured to themselves bread to the full, and fleshpots, and admitted
longing for the rankest onions. For we shall find in Numbers, that both certain were
punished, and the place, wherein they were then encamping, was called the graves of lust,
for there they buried the people that lusted. With respect then to the first question, we
say that it assuredly behoved Him to wait for the desire, and so at length to reveal
Himself in due season the Giver. For most welcome is the gift to those in good case, when
certain pleasures appear before it and precede it, inciting to thirst after what is not
yet come: but the soul of man will be devoid of a more grateful sensation, if it do not
first stretch after and labour for the pleasures of being well off. But perhaps you will
say that there had been no way any entreaty from them, but murmuring rather, repentance,
and outcry: for this would indeed be speaking more truly.

To this we say, that entreaty through prayer will befit those who are of a perfect habit:
and perchance the murmuring of the more feeble from depressionor whatever cause, will
partake of this: and the Saviour of all, being loving to man is not altogether angry at
it. For as in those who are yet babes, crying will sometimes avail to the asking of their
needs, and the mother is often called by it to find out what will please the child: so to
those who were yet babes, and had not yet advanced to understanding, the cry of weariness
so to say, has the force of petition before God. And He punisheth not in the beginning,
even though He see them worsted by earthly lusts, but after a time, for this reason, as
seems to me. They who were but newly come forth of Egypt, not having yet received the
manna, nor having the Bread from heaven, which strengtheneth man's heart, fall as might be
expected, into carnal lusts, and therefore are pardoned. But they who had already
delighted in the Lord, as it is written, on preferring carnal delights to the spiritual
good things, have to give most righteous satisfaction, and over and above their suffering
have assigned them a notable memorial of their fate. For the graves of lust is the name of
the place of their punishment.

And the people shall go out and gather the day's portion each day. We will consider the
sensible manna a type of the spiritual manna; and the spiritual manna signifies Christ
Himself, but the sensible manna adumbrates the grosser teaching of the Law. With reason is
the gathering daily, and the lawgiver forbids keeping it till the morrow, darkly hinting
to them of old, that when the time of salvation at length shines forth, wherein the Only
Begotten appeared in the world with Flesh, the legal types should be wholly abolished, and
the gathering food thence in vain, while the Truth Itself lieth before us for our pleasure
and enjoyment. And it shall come to pass, on the sixth day, and they shall prepare that
which they bring in, and it shall be double what they gather. Observe again, that thou
mayest understand, that He does not suffer them to gather on the seventh day the sensible
manna, but commands that which is already provided and gathered to be prepared for their
food beforehand. For the seventh day signifies the time of the Advent of our Saviour,
wherein we rest in holiness, ceasing from works of sin, and receiving for food, both the
fulfilment of our faith, and the knowledge already arranged in us through the Law, no
longer gathering it as of necessity, since more excellent food is now before us, and we
have the Bread from heaven. The manna is collected in double measure before the holy
sabbath: and you will understand thence, that the Law being concluded in respect of its
temporal close, and the holy sabbath, that is, Christ's coming, already beginning, the
getting of the heavenly goods will be after some sort in double measure, and the grace
two-fold, bringing in addition to the advantages from the Law, the Gospel instruction
also. Which the Lord Himself too may be conceived to teach when He says, as in the form of
a parable. Therefore every scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a
wealthy 14 man which putteth forth out of his treasure things new and old: the old the
things of the Law, the new those through Christ.

And Moses and Aaron said unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, At even ye
shall know that the Lord brought you forth from the land of Egypt, in the morning ye shall
see the glory of the Lord, in that the Lord giveth you in the evening flesh to eat and in
the morning bread to the full. Moses promises to them of Israel, that quails shall be
given them by God in the evening, and declares that hereby they shall know surely that the
Lord brought them up out of Egypt. And in the morning ye shall see plainly, (he says) the
glory of the Lord, when He shall give you bread to the full. And consider, I pray you, the
difference between each of these. For the quail signifies the Law (for the bird ever flies
low and about the earth): thus wilt thou see those too who are instructed through the Law
unto a more earthly piety through types, I mean such as relate to sacrifice and
purifications and Jewish washing. For these are heaved a little above the earth, and seem
to rise above it, but are nevertheless in it and about it: for not in the Law is that
which is perfectly good and lofty unto understanding. Moreover it is given in the evening:
the account again by evening signifying the obscurity of the letter, or the darksome
condition of the world, when it had not yet the Very Light, i. e.,.

Christ, who when He was Incarnate said, I am come a Light into the world. But He says the
children of Israel shall know that the Lord brought them out of Egypt. For knowledge only
of the salvation generally through Christ is seen in the Mosaic book, while grace was not
yet present in very person. This very thing He hinted at, when He added, In the morning ye
shall see the glory of the Lord, in that He giveth you bread to the full. For when the
mist of the Law, as it were night, hath been dispersed, and the spiritual Sun hath risen
upon us all, we behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord now present, receiving the
Bread from heaven to the full, I mean Christ Himself. And it was evening and the quails
came up and covered the camp, and in the morning as the dew ceased round about the host,
and behold, upon the face of the wilderness a small thing, as coriander seed, white. Look
at the arrangement of the things to be considered. He says of the quails, that they
covered the camp; of the manna again, that in the morning when the dew was gone up, it lay
on the face of the wilderness round about the camp. For the instruction through the Law, I
mean that in types and figures, which we have compared to the appearance of quails, covers
the synagogue of the Jews: for, as Paul saith, the veil lieth upon their heart, and
hardness in part. But when it was morning, that is, when Christ had now risen, and flashed
forth upon all the world, and when the dew was gone up, that is, the gross and mist-like
introduction of legal ordinances (for Christ is the end of the Law and the Prophets); then
of a surety the true and heavenly manna will come down to us, I mean the Gospel teaching,
not upon the congregation of the Israelites, but round about the camp, i. e., to all the
nations, and upon the face of the wilderness, that is the Church of the Gentiles, whereof
it is said that more are the children of the desolate than of the married wife. For over
the whole world is dispersed the grace of the spiritual manna, which is also compared to
the coriander seed, and is called small. For the power of the Divine Word being of a truth
subtle, and cooling the heat of the passions, lulleth the fire of carnal motions within
us, and entereth into the deep of the heart. For they say that the effect of this herb, I
mean the coriander, is most cooling.

And when the children of Israel saw it they said one to another, What is this? for they
wist not what it was; being unused to what had been miraculously wrought and not being
able to say from experience what it was, they say one to another What is this? But this
very thing which is said interrogatively, they make the name of the thing, and call it in
the Syrian tongue, Manna, i.e., What is this? and you will hence see, how Christ would be
unknown among the Jews. For that which prevailed in the type, trial shewed that it had
also force in the truth. And Moses said to them, Let no man leave of it till the morning;
and they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it
bred worms and stank, and Moses was wroth with them. The morning in this place signifies
the bright and most glorious time of the coming of our Saviour, when the shadow of the Law
and the mist of

the devil among the nations, being in some sort undone, the Only-Begotten rose upon us
like light, and spiritual dawn appeared. The blessed Moses then commanded not to leave of
the typical manna until the morning; for when the aforementioned time hath risen upon us,
superfluous and utterly out of place are the shadows of the Law by reason of the now
present truth. For that a thing truly useless is the righteousness of the Law when Christ
hath now gleamed forth, Paul shewed, saying of Him, for whom I suffered the loss of all
things, to wit, glorying in the Law, and do count them dung, that I may win Christ and be
found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law, but that which is
through the faith of Jesus Christ. Seest thou then, how as a wise man he took care not to
leave of it till the morning? They who kept of it unto the morning are a type of the
Jewish multitude which should believe not, whose eager desire to keep the law in the
letter, should be a producing of corruption and of worms. For nearest thou how the
Lawgiver is exasperated greatly against them? And Moses said unto Aaron, Take one golden
pot, and put therein manna, an omer full, and thou shalt lay it up before God to be kept.
Well in truth may we marvel hereat, and say, O the depth of the riches and wisdom and
knowledge of God!

For incomprehensible in truth is the wisdom hidden in the God-inspired Scriptures, and
deep their depth, as it is written, who can find it out? Thou seest then how our last
comment fitted these things: For since Christ Himself was shewn to be our Very Manna,
declared in type by way of image to them of old, needs does he teach in this place, of
Whom and of what virtue and glory will he be full, who treasureth up in himself the
spiritual Manna, and bringeth Jesus into the inmost recesses of his heart, through right
faith in Him and perfect love. For thou hearest how the omer full of manna was put in a
golden pot, and by the hand of Aaron laid up before the Lord to be kept. For the holy and
truly pious soul, which travaileth of the Word of God perfectly in herself, and receiveth
entire the heavenly treasure will be a precious vessel, like as of gold, and will be
offered by the High Priest of all to God the Father, and will be brought into the Presence
of Him Who holdeth all things together and preserveth them to be kept, not suffering to
perish that which is of its own nature perishable. The righteous man then is described, as
having in a golden vessel the spiritual Manna, that is Christ, attaining unto
incorruption, as in the Sight of God, and remaining to be kept, that is unto long-enduring
and endless life.

Christ with reason therefore convicts the Jews of no slight madness, in supposing that the
manna was given by the all-wise Moses to them of old, and in staying at this point their
discourse thereon and considering not one at all of the things presignified thereby, by
His saying, Verily I say unto you, Not Moses hath given you the manna. For they ought
rather to have considered this and perceived that Moses had brought in the service of
mediation merely: but that the gift was no invention of human hand, but the work of Divine
Grace, outlining the spiritual in the grosser, and signifying to us the Bread from Heaven,
Which giveth Life to the whole world, and doth not feed the one race of Israel as it were
by preference. 34, 35 They said therefore unto Him, Lord evermore give us this Bread.
Jesus said unto them, Hereby is clearly divulged, though much desiring to be hid, the aim
of the Jews, and that one might see that it is not lawful for the Truth to lie, which said
that not because they saw the miracles, were they therefore eager to follow Him, but
because they did eat of the loaves and were filled. With reason then were they condemned
for their much dulness, and I suppose one should truly say to them, Lo a foolish people
and without heart, they have eyes and see not, they have ears and hear not. For while our
Saviour Christ by many words, as one may see, is drawing them away from carnal
imaginations, and by His all-wise teaching winging them unto spiritual contemplation, they
attain not above the profit of the flesh, and hearing of the Bread which giveth life unto
the world, they still picture to themselves that of the earth, having their belly for god,
as it is written, and overcome by the evils of the belly, that they may justly hear, whose
glory is in their shame. And you will find such language very consonant to that of the
woman of Samaria.

For when our Saviour Christ was expending upon her too a long discourse, and telling her
of the spiritual waters, and saying clearly, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst
again, hut whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but
the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing wp into
everlasting life: she caught at it through the dulness that was in her, and letting go the
spiritual fountain, and thinking nothing at all about it, but sinking down to the gift of
sensible wells, says, Lord give me this water, that I thirst not neither come hither to
draw. Akin therefore to her language is that of the Jews. For as she was weaklyby nature,
in the same way (I think) have these too nought male or manly in their understanding, but
are effeminated unto the unmanly lusts of the belly, and shew that that is true of them
which is written, For the foolish man will utter folly, and his heart will imagine vain
things.

I am the Bread of life It is the custom of our Saviour Christ when explaining the more
Divine and already foretold Mysteries, to make His Discourse upon them darksome and not
too transparent. For He commits not His so dread word to lie unveiled before the unholy
and profane indiscriminately at their pleasure, to be trodden down by them, but having
veiled it in the armour of obscurity, He renders it not invisible to the prudent, but when
He seeth among His hearers any foolish ones, and who understand no whit of the things
spoken, He opens clearly what He wills to make known, and removing as it were all mist
from His Discourse, He sets the knowledge of the Mystery before them bare and in full
view, hereby rendering their unbelief without defence. That it was His wont (as we have
said) to use an obscure and reserved method of speaking, He will Himself teach us, saying
in the Book of Psalms, I will open My Mouth in parables. And the blessed prophet Isaiah
too no less will confirm our explanation hereof, and shew it in no wise mistaken,
proclaiming, Behold a righteous King shall reign, and princes shall rule with judgment,
and a man shall veil his words: for he says that He has reigned a righteous King over us
who saith. Yet was I appointed King by Him, upon Sion His holy mountain, declaring the
commandment of the Lord:

and princes living together in judgment, that is, in uprightness in every thing, he calls
the holy disciples who came to the Saviour Christ oftentimes veiling His words, saying,
Declare unto us the parable. And He once on hearing the question, Why speakest Thou unto
the multitudes in parables? is found to have declared most manifestly the cause, Because
they seeing (He says) see not, and hearing they hear not, nor understand. For they were no
ways worthy (it seems) seeing that God who judgeth justly, decreed this sentence upon
them. The Saviour then, having devised many turns in His Discourse, when He saw that His
hearers understood nothing, at length says more openly, I am the Bread, of life, and well-
nigh makes an attack upon their unmeasured want of reason, saying, O ye who have the
mastery over all in your incomparable uninstructedness alone, when God declares that He
will give you Bread from Heaven, and has made you so great a promise in feeding you with
manna, do ye limit the Divine Liberality, and are ye not ashamed of staying the grace from
above at this, not knowing that it is but a little thing both for you to receive such
things of God, and for God Himself to give them you? Do not then believe (saith He) that
that bread is the Bread from Heaven. For I am the Bread of Life, Who of old was fore-
announced to you as in promise, and shewn as in type, but now am present fulfilling My due
promise.

I am the Bread of Life, not bodily bread, which cutteth off the suffering from hunger
only, and freeth the flesh from the destruction therefrom, but remoulding wholly the whole
living being to eternal life, and rendering man who was formed to be for ever, superior to
death. By these words He points to the life and grace through His Holy Flesh, through
which this property of the Only Begotten, i. e., life, is introduced into us. But we must
know (for I think we ought with zealous love of learning to pursue what brings us profit)
that for forty whole years was the typical manna supplied to them of Israel by God, while
Moses was yet with them, but when he had attained the common termination of life, and
Jesus was now appointed the commander and general of the Jewish ranks: he brought them
over Jordan, as it is written, and having circumcised them with knives of stoneand brought
them into the land of promise, he at length arranged that they should be fed with bread,
the all-wise God having now stayed His gift of manna. Thus (for the type shall now be
transferred to the truer) when Moses was shrouded, that is, when the types of the worship
after the Law were brought to nought, and Christ appeared to us, the true Jesus (for He
saved His people from their sins), then we crossed the Jordan, then received the spiritual
circumcision through the teaching of the twelve stones, that is of the holy disciples, of
whom if is written in the Prophets that the holy stones are rolled upon His land. For the
holy stones going about and running over the whole earth, are of a surety these, through
whom also we were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in Spirit, i. e.,
through faith. When then we were called to the kingdom of Heaven by Christ (for this and
nought else, I deem, it pointeth to, that some entered into the land of promise), then the
typical manna no longer belongeth to us (for not by the letter of Moses are we any longer
nourished) but the Bread from Heaven, i. e., Christ, nourishing us unto eternal life, both
through the supply of the Holy Ghost, and the participation of His Own Flesh, which
infuseth into us the participation of God, and effaceth the deadness that cometh from the
ancient curse.

He that cometh to Me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.
There is herein again something concealed which we must say. For it is the wont of the
Saviour Christ, not to contend with the praises of the saints, but on the contrary to
crown them with glorious honours. But when certain of the more ignorant folk, not
perceiving how great His excellence over them, offer them a superior glory, then does He
to their great profit bring them to a meeter idea, while they consider Who the Only-
Begotten is, and that He will full surely surpass by incomparable Excellencies. But not
over clear does He make His Discourse to this effect, but somewhat obscure and free from
any boast, and yet by consideration of or comparison of the works it forcibly takes hold
on the vote of superiority. For instance, He was discoursing one time with the woman of
Samaria, to whom He promised to give living water; and the woman understanding nought of
the things spoken said, Art THOU greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well? But
when the Saviour wished to persuade her that He was both greater than he, and in no slight
degree more worthy of belief, He proceeds to the difference between the water, and says,
Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinlceth of the water
that I shall give him, it shall be in him a well of water syringing up into everlasting
life.

And what thence does He give to understand but surely this, that the Giver of more
excellent gifts must needs be surely Himself more excellent than he with whom was the
comparison? Some such method then of leading and instruction He uses now too. For since
the Jews were behaving haughtily towards Him, and durst think big, putting forward on all
occasions their Lawgiver Moses, and often asserting that they ought to follow his
ordinances rather than Christ's, thinking that the supply of manna and the gushing forth
of water from the rock, were most reasonable proof of his superiority over all, and over
our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself, needs He did return to His wonted plan, and does not say
downright, that He is superior to Moses, by reason of the unbridled daring of His hearers,
and their being most exceeding prone to wrath; but He comes to this very thing that is
marvelled at, and by comparison of it with the greater, proves that it is small. For he
that cometh to Me (He says) shall never hunger and he that believeth on Me shall never
thirst. Yea (saith He) I too will agree with you that the manna was given through Moses,
but they that did eat thereof hungered. I will grant that out of the womb of the rocks was
given forth unto you water, but they who drank thirsted, and the aforesaid gift wrought
them some little temporary enjoyment;

but he that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never
thirst. What then doth Christ promise? Nothing corruptible, but rather that Blessing in
the participation of His Holy Flesh and Blood, which restoreth man wholly to incorruption,
so that he should need none of the things which drive off the death of the flesh, food (I
mean) and drink. It seems that He here calls water, the Sanctification through the Spirit,
or the Divine and Holy Ghost Himself, often so named by the Divine Scriptures. The Holy
Body of Christ then giveth life to those in whom It is, and holdeth them together unto
incorruption, being commingled with our bodies. For it is conceived of as the Body of none
other, but of Him which is by Nature life, having in itself the whole virtue of the united
Word, and inqualitied, yea or rather, fulfilled with His effectuating Might, through which
all things are quickened and retained in being. But since these things are so, let them
who have now been baptized and have tasted the Divine Grace, know, that if they go
sluggishly or hardly at all into the Churches, and for a long time keep away from the
Eucharistic giftthrough Christ, and feign a pernicious reverence, in that they will not
partake of Him sacramentally, they exclude themselves from eternal life, in that they
decline to be quickened; and this their refusal, albeit seeming haply to be the fruit of
reverence, is turned into a snare and an offence.

For rather ought they urgently to gather up their implanted power and purpose, that so
they may be resolute in clearing away sin, and essay to live a life most comely, and so
hasten with all boldness to the participation of Life. But since Satan is manifold in his
wiles, he never suffers them to think that they ought to be soberminded, but after having
denied them with evils, persuades them to shrink from the very grace, whereby it were
likely, that they recovering from the pleasure that leads to vice, as from wine and
drunkenness, should see and consider what is for their good. Breaking off therefore his
bond, and shaking off the yoke cast upon us from his tyranny, let us serve the Lord with
fear, as it is written, and through temperance shew ourselves superior to the pleasures of
the flesh and approach to that Divine and Heavenly Grace, and mount up unto the holy
Participation of Christ; for thus, thus shall we overcome the deceit of the devil, and,
having become partakers of the Divine Nature, shall mount up to life and incorruption.

36 But I said unto you that ye have both seen Me and believe not. By many words doth He
struggle with them, and in every way urge them to salvation by faith. But He was not
ignorant, as God, that they would run off to unbelief, as their sister or intimate foster
sister, and would regard as nought, Him who calleth them to life. In order then that they
might know that Jesus was not ignorant what manner of men they would be found, or rather,
to speak more fittingly, that they might learn that they were under the Divine wrath, He
charges them again, But I said unto you that ye have both seen Me and believe not. I
foreknew (says He) and clearly foretold, that ye would surely remain hard, and keeping
fast hold of your cherished disobedience, ye would be left without share in My gifts. And
when did Christ say any thing of this kind? remember Him saying to the blessed prophet
Isaiah, Go and tell this people, Hear ye in hearing and understand not, and looking look
and see not, for the heart of this people is waxen fat. Will not the word be shewn to be
true by these things also which are before us? for they saw, they saw that the Lord was by
Nature God, when He fed a multitude exceeding number which came unto Him with five barley
loaves, and two small fishes, which He brake up. But they have seen and believe not, by
reason of the blindness which like a mist hath come upon their understandings from the
Divine wrath. For they were (I suppose) without doubt worthy to undergo this, for that
they, caught in innumerable stumblings, and fast holden in the indissoluble bands of their
transgressions, received not when He came Him who had power to loose them. For this cause
was the heart of this people made fat.

But that the multitude of the Jews saw by the greatness of the sign that Jesus was by
Nature God, you will understand full well by this too. For marvelling at what was done, as
the Evangelist says above, they sought to seize Him to make Him a King. No excuse then for
their folly is left unto the Jews. For astonished (and with much reason) at the Divine
signs, and coming from the works proportionably to the Might of Him Who worketh, they
wellnigh, shudder at their readiness to believe, and spring back from good habits, readily
making a summerset as it were into the very depths of perdition. 37 All that the Father
giveth Me shall come to Me, It did not behove the Lord simply to say, Ye have both seen Me
and believe not, but it was necessary that He should bring in besides the reason of their
blindness, that they might learn that they had fallen under the Divine displeasure.
Therefore as a skilful physician He both shews them their weakness, and reveals the cause
of it, not in order that they on learning it may remain quiet in it, but that they may by
every means appease the Lord of all, Who is grieved at them, i. e., for just causes. For
He would never be grieved unjustly, nor would He Who knows how to give righteous judgment
have given any such judgment upon them, were not reason calling Him thereto, from all
sides hasting unto the duty of accusal. The Saviour hereby affirmed that everything should
come to Him, which God the Father gave Him; not as though He were unable to bring
believers to Himself, for this He would have accomplished very easily if He had so willed,
according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things to Himself, as Paul
saith: but since it seemed somehow necessary and more fit, to say that they who were in
ignorance were illumined by the Divine Nature, He again as Man attributes to the Father
the operation, as to things more God-befitting. For so was His wont to do, as we have
often said.

But it is probable that when He says that all that He giveth Him shall be brought to Him
by God the Father, He points to the people of the Gentiles now about full soon to believe
on Him. It is the word of one skilfully threatening, that both they shall fall away from
grace, and that in their stead shall come in all who of the Gentiles are brought by the
goodness of God the Father, to the Son, as to Him Who is by Nature Saviour and Lifegiving,
that they, partaking of the Blessing from Him, may be made partakers of the Divine Nature,
and be thus brought back to incorruption and life, and be reformed unto the pristine
fashion of our nature. As though one should bring a sick man to a physician, that he might
drive away the sickness that has fallen upon him, so we say that God the Father brings to
the Son those who are worthy salvation from Him. Bitter then and full of destruction is
hardness of heart to them that have it. Therefore doth the word of prophecy chide the
Jews, crying aloud, Be ye circumcised to God, and circumcise the hardness of your heart,
ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Yet not for them, but for us rather hath God
the Father kept the circumcision in the heart, namely that which is through the Holy
Ghost, wrought according to the rites of him who is a Jew inwardly.

It is then right to flee from their disobedience, and with all zeal to renounce hardness
of heart, and to reform unto a more toward disposition, if we would avert the wrath that
was upon them unto destruction. and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. He
says that conversion through faith will not be profitless unto them that come to Him. For
He had to shew that the being brought by God the Father was a most desirable thing, and
productive of ten thousand goods. Things most excellent then (saith He) shall be theirs,
who through the grace from above are called to Me and come. For I will not cast out him
that cometh, that is I will not discard him as an unprofitable vessel, as is said through
one of the Prophets, Jechonias was despised, as a vessel whereof there is no use, he was
cast away, and cast forth into a land which he knew not. Earth, earth, hear the word of
the Lord, write ye this man a man proscribed. He shall not then be proscribed (saith He)
nor cast forth, as one despised, nor shall he abide without share of Mine regard, but
shall be gathered up into My garner, and shall dwell in the heavenly mansions, and shall
see himself possessed of every hope beyond understanding of man. For eye hath not seen nor
ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God prepared for
them that love Him. It is probable that the word?, I will not cast out him that cometh to
Me signify moreover, that the believer, and he that cometh to the Divine Grace, shall not
be delivered over to the judgment.

For you will find that the word out, has some such meaning, as in that parable in the
blessed Matthew. For (saith He) the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net that was cast
into the sea and gathered of every kind, which having brought up and dragged to the shore,
they gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. For that the good are gathered
into the Divine and heavenly Courts, we shall understand by His saying that the good were
gathered into vessels: and by the unprofitable being cast away, we shall see that the
ungodly shall fall away from all good, and go away into judgment. When then Christ says,
Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out, let us understand that the people which
cometh unto Him through faith shall never fall into torment. Most wisely does He seem to
me in these words to veil a threat against those most abandoned men, that if any will not
turn with all speed to obedience, they shall be deprived of all good, and be excluded even
against their will from His Friendship. For wherein He promises not to cast out him that
cometh, He in the same signifieth that He will surely cast out him that cometh not.

Cyril Archbishop of Alexandria on the Gospel according to John, Book the third.


COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V
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COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V continued

BOOK IV

Chapter I. That in nothing is the Son inferior to God the Father, because He is of Him by
Nature, although He be said by some to be subject.

38, 39 Because I have come down from heaven, not to do Mine Own Will but the Will of the
Father That sent Me. And this is the Will of Him which sent Me, that of all which He hath
given Me I should lose none of it, but should raise it up at the last day. This passage
will seem hard to a person who considers it superficially, and not far removed from
offence regarding the faith, so that they even expect us hence to fall into difficulties
hard to be overcome, which come from our opponents. But there is nothing at all hard
herein, for all things are plain to them that understand, as it is written, and right to
them that find knowledge, that is to those who piously study to interpret and understand
the mysteries contained in the Divine Scriptures. In these words then Christ gives us a
kind of proof and manifest assurance that he that cometh to Him shall not be cast out. For
for this cause (saith He) I came down from Heaven, that is, I became Man according to the
good pleasure of God the Father, and refused not to be employed in all but undesired
works, until I should attain for them that believe on Me eternal life and the resurrection
from the dead, having destroyed the power of death. What then was this that Christ both,
willed and willed not 1? Dishonour from the Jews, revilings, insults, contumelies,
scourgings, spitings, and yet more, false witnesses, and last of all, the death of the
Body. These things for our sakes Christ willingly underwent, but if He could without
suffering them have accomplished His Desire for us, He would not have willed to suffer.

But since the Jews were surely and inevitably going to adventure the things done against
Him, He accepts the Suffering, He makes what He willed not His Will, for the value sake of
His Passion, God the Father agreeing with Him, and co-approving that He should readily
undergo all things for the salvation of all. Herein specially do we see the boundless
goodness of the Divine Nature, in that It refuseth not to make that which is spurned, Its
choice for our sakes. But that the suffering on the Cross was unwilled by our Saviour
Christ, yet willed for our sakes and the Good Pleasure of God the Father, you will hence
understand. For when He was about to ascend thereunto, He made His addresses to God,
saying, that is, in the form of prayer, Father, if it be possible, let this Cup pass from
Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as THOU. For that in that He is God the Word,
Immortal and Incorruptible, and Life Itself by Nature, He could not shudder at death, I
think is most clear to all: yet made in Flesh He suffers the Flesh to undergo things
proper to it, and permits it to shudder at death when now at its doors, that He may be
shewn to be in truth Man; therefore He says, If it be possible, let this Cup pass from Me.

If it may be (He says) Father, that I, without suffering death, may gain life for them
that have fallen thereinto if death may die without My dying, in the Flesh that is, let
this cup (He says) pass from Me; but since it will not take place (He says) otherwise, not
as I will, but as THOU. Thou seest how powerless human nature is found, even in Christ
Himself, as far as it is concerned: but it is brought back through the Word united with it
unto God-befitting undauntedness and is re-trained to noble purpose, so as not to commit
itself to what seems good to its own will, but rather to follow the Divine Aim, and
readily to run to whatever the Law of its Creator calls us. That we say these things
truly, you may learn from that too which is subjoined, For the spirit indeed (He saith) is
willing, but the flesh is weak. For Christ was not ignorant that it is very far beneath
God-befitting Dignity, to seem to be overcome by death, and to feel the dread of it:
therefore He subjoined to what He had said the strongest defence, saying that the flesh
was weak, by reason of what befits it and belongs to it by nature; but that the spirit was
willing, knowing that it suffered nought that could harm. Seest thou how death was
unwilled by Christ, by reason of the Flesh, and the inglory of suffering:

yet willed, until He should have brought unto its destined consummation for the whole
world the Good Pleasure of the Father, that is, the salvation and life of all? For doth He
not truly and indeed signify something of this kind, when He says that this is the Will of
the Father, that of those who were brought to Him He should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day? For as we taught before, God the Father in His Love to man
brings to Christ as to Life and the Saviour, him that lacketh life and salvation. But I
perceive that I am saying what pleases not the enemy of the truth. For he will by no means
agree to the things which we have just said: but will cry out loudly, and will come with
his shrill cry, Whither are you leading astray (you sir) our line of thought and are
devising intricate inroads of ideas and drawing away the passage from the truth? You blush
I suppose (says he) to confess the involuntary subjection of the Son. For is it not hereby
also evident to us, that He will never command and bear rule in the management of affairs,
but is subject rather to the Will of the Father? For He is conscious of so coming short of
Equality with Him, that He is constrained in some sort to make what He wills not His Will,
and to do not altogether as seems good to Him, but rather what pleases the Father. And do
not tell me (says he) dragging the expression into the Incarnation, It is as Man that He
is subject. For lo, as thou seest, He being yet God and bare Word and unentangled with
Flesh, came down from Heaven, and before He was at all clothed with the form of a servant,
was subject to the Father, i. e., as His Superior and Ruler.

With dread words, good sir, as you surely deem, and swift-coursing exceedingly do you
overrun us, yet are they words that go not straight forward but are scared out of the
Kings beaten highway; and having left (as the Greek proverb hath it) the carriage-way, you
are pressing forward upon precipices and rocks. For vainly do ye maintain against us that
the Son obeys the Father, ever speaking as though any of them who deem aright thought that
one ought to hold the contrary, and were not rather determined to agree with you herein.
For we do not conceive of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity as ever divided against
Itself, or cleft into diverse opinions, or that the Father (may be) or the Son or the Holy
Ghost are severed unto what seems good to each individually, but They agree in all things,
since of One Godhead, it is clear, One and the Same Will ever existeth, in the Whole Holy
Trinity. Away then with a long argument with us hereon, still be the spirit that would
wrangle where it least of all should, for since none is indignant thereat, it is
superfluous still to press it.

But since ye, accustomed to think and to hold most perverse things, term the Son's
agreement with the Will of the Father, subjection of necessity, on this matter we will
discuss with you what is right. For if this statement were put forth by you in simplicity,
we too would with reason hold our peace, and not too strictly test the agreement of
language. But since we see that it is put forth in deep malice, we shall of necessity
oppose you, trusting in the Power of the Holy Ghost, and not to our own words. For not
absolutely, nor simply as His rule of conduct, nor yet for every action did. the Son
affirm that He did not wholly and entirely hold by His Own Will, but He says that He kept
His Father's Will in one definite act, on account of thy wresting of words (as I conceive)
providing as God for our security. But He endured what He would not, and for our sakes
made it His Will; I mean His Suffering upon the Cross, since so it was well-pleasing unto
His Father, as we have said before. And one may see the proof straightway laid down, and
the principle evidently set before us, on which (as Himself says) He left His Own Will,
and fulfils the Father's. For this (He saith) is the Will of the Father that of all which
He hath given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day.

And that the Suffering on the Cross was really unwilled alike and willed by the Only
Begotten, hath been clearly stated before. But we shall state it again hereafter with more
accurate proofs, simplifying the truth to our readers. But I will proceed first to the
examination of the subjection alleged by you, it being previously laid down and
unhesitatingly confessed by you, that the Wills of the Holy Trinity ever coincide into one
Will and Purpose. Let those subtle disputers tell us then, whether in the name and fact of
subjection the Being of the Son consists, and this is His Nature, in the same way for
instance as humanity belongs to a man, or whether He, existing before in His Own Proper
Mode, is subject to the Father, as one might conceive of an angel for instance, or any
other reasonable power. For these things, being and existing, are recipient of the mode of
subjection.

If then ye say that the Being of the Son consists in His being subject to the Father, He
will be a subjection rather and not a Son. How then (tell me) will ye not be manifest
triflers? for how can this subjection be conceived to exist of itself without having its
being in any of the things that are? For such things are usually the accidents of the
necessarily pre-existing subjects wherein they are wont to be, and not otherwise: and are
viewed as belonging to substances, or befalling them, rather than having any existence in
themselves. And as lust for instance, which calls and impels us to any thing, has no
existence in itself, but is conceived rather in him who is recipient thereof: so
subjection pointing at some sway of the will to the duty of subjection to any, will not be
conceived of in its own nature, but will rather be as passion, or will, or desire, in some
one of the things that are. Besides the name and fact of subjection spoken absolutely will
not be conceived of as properly predicated of any one, nor will one know whether it be
good or bad, unless it be added to whom the subjection is: for a man is subject to God,
but also to the devil.

And as the name wise is a mean term (for some are wise to do evil, and again the wise
shall inherit glory, having clearly their wisdom in good things), so too subjection is a
kind of mean term, and not a truth definitely expressed, for it is quite uncertain to whom
the subjection is. Hence also, the Nature of the Son is left in uncertainty, if It be
conceived of as (according to you) a subjection. For a subjection to what, if no one were
brought forward, one could not say without falsehood. But that the subjection will not
exist of itself, in its own mode of being, we bringing forward some grosser and more
obvious reasoning in regard to things already made, shall see: and do thou accept a
demonstration besides. For if we grant that the being of a man (for example) consists in
his being subject, we shall consider that his not existing consists in his not being
subject. How then was it said by the Psalmist to some one, as being indeed and existing,
but not yet subjected, Submit thee to the Lord, and entreat Him? Seest thou then how
utterly foolish it is to suppose that subjection has any existence in itself? One must
then of necessity confess that the Son was and existed previously in His Own Nature, and
so say that He was subject to the Father.

What then (tell me) is there to constrain that He Who is of the Essence of His Father, the
Exact Impress of His Nature, should fall from His Equality with Him, on account of His
being obedient? For WE who think and speak rightly, know that He is con-substantial with
the Father, and give Him Equal Honour in all respects, and consider that in nought does He
come short of God-befitting Divinity: but do THOU see in what manner thou canst thrust
away from Equal honour with the Father on account of the alleged subjection Him who enjoys
equal goods by reason of Identity of Essence. But this very thing (says he) will make for
our side of the argument, namely that the Son is obedient to the Father, and doth not
overmuch consider His Own Will, but yields rather to that of the Father, as above Him and
greater than He.

But this very thing according to your own word sir, which you think will aid your
argument, you will find to be nothing but the fruit of your own unlearning. For if we were
disputing, which was superior in dignity, and had the greater glory, your ever-repeated
argument would even then scarce seem to have any seasonable ground. But since the mode of
consubstantiality is being examined into, how shall ye not be caught in no slight folly
attributing to God the Father superiority therein over His own offspring? For the terms
'greater' or 'less' or the like, we do not allow to be strictly essences (as we said of
subjection) but they are something external, and qualities of essences. For that which
already pre-existed and is, will be recipient (it may be) of 'greater' or ' less ' by
comparison with another thing: but if there is nought before it or pre-existent, in
respect to which such things would happen, how will they exist by themselves, albeit
conceived of and defined under the class of accidents? Hence in telling us of greater or
less ye do not touch the Essence of the Only-Begotten, nor yet That of the Father, but
only with external excellences or short-comings, embellish (as ye suppose) the Father and
revile the Son, although ye hear Him openly crying aloud, He that honoureth not the Son
neither doth he honour the Father, and that all men ought to honour the Son even as they
honour the Father.

For that things which can no way be severed into foreign alieniety, but have one and the
same essence must be endowed with equal glory, Christ most excellently teaches in that He
accepteth not to receive testimony to Himself from men, as Himself said, but came forward
as Himself unto Himself a witness credible and more worthy than all that are. And He being
by Nature Truth will surely say true, as one may prove from the very quality of things.
For you will probably grant that the 'greater' or 'less' belong not to the very essence of
ought but to the things in respect of their essence. For instance, a man will not be
greater or less than another man, in respect of his being conceived of and called a man:
for neither is man less than man qua man, neither is he greater than man, qua man: for the
count of nature is seen to be equal in all. And the same method of reasoning will hold, of
angels too, or any thing else that is made and enrolled among creation. Therefore such
things are found to be utterly without place in regard to the essences themselves, but are
the accidents of the essences, or of what belongs to the essences, as we have delivered
above. How then will the Father be greater than the Son, God by Nature than God by Nature?
For the Son having been begotten of Him, will surely compel you, even against your own
will, to grant Him Con-substantiality with Him.

It having been premised then, and unhesitatingly admitted that the Son is by Nature God,
let us consider if you please, whether by paying Him equal Honour with Him of Whom He is,
we shall confer honour upon the Begetter, or shall do the reverse, by insulting with less
and inferior honour the Begotten, as is really and more truly the case. For it is the
glory of the Father to have begotten one, such as Himself is by Nature. But the exact
contrary will befall (for it is not meet to utter it), if the Son retain not the natural
condition befitting Him, having inferiority either in glory or in ought else that should
belong to Him, in order to be through all things manifested the All-Perfect and Very God.
If then He, being thus by Nature, honour the Father, mock not thereat, O man, nor be found
guilty of ignorantly finding fault, where there is least occasion for it. For it were meet
(I suppose) to admire Him for this too that He honours and loves His Father: for every
species of virtue has, as its source and root, the Essence that is above all; in It first
good things have their rise, and flow down to us, who are made after Its Image.

Wherefore us too the Lawgiver bade to honour, as was due, father and mother, yea and
annexed the most noble rewards thereto (for he knew, I suppose, that it was a thing most
great, and so far removed from all reproach, as to be even the giver of long-enduring
life). As then WE by being subject to and obeying our parents, are not rendered other in
nature than they, but being as they are men of men, and having and keeping the definition
of manhood perfect, we practise obedience as an excellent virtue; so conceive in respect
of the Father and the Son. For He being what He is, God of God, Perfect of Perfect, Exact
Impress of the Essence of His Father, thinketh nought else than He too thinketh, Whose
both counsel and Word He is; and will wholly will the same as the Father, compelled by the
same laws (so to say) of consubstantiality, to co-will all good things together with the
Father.

Be no wise offended then, O man, when thou hearest Him say, I have come down from Heaven,
not to do Mine own Will, but the Will of Him that sent Me. For what we said at the
beginning, this we will say again. Christ said this of a definite and plain matter. For He
saith these words, teaching that He willed to die for all because the Divine Nature had so
counselled, but willed it not by reason of the Sufferings on the Cross, and as far as
pertained to the flesh which deprecates death. And we have already expended many words:
but it is convenient that we should see from the very nature of things that the suffering
on the Cross was unwilled by Christ, in that He was Man. We say then that it was a work of
Jewish folly, that Christ should be crucified at all, and this was immediately to happen
from them, who were not unpractised in boldness hereunto by means of what they had already
done both to the holy Prophets, and the saints who were at that time. But since no
otherwise was it possible to raise again unto life that which had fallen into death,
unless the Only Begotten Word of God became Man, and it was wholly needful that made Man,
He should suffer; He made what He willed not, His Will, the Divine Nature having permitted
this from Love to us.

For the Artificer of all things, Wisdom, i. e., the Son, made that which was a machination
of devilish perversity, I mean His Death in the Flesh;----this He made a way of salvation
to us and a door of life, and the devil's hopes were overturned, and he learned at last by
experience, that hard is it for him to fight against God. The Divine Psalmist too seems to
agree with what I have said of these things, and to hint at something of this sort, when
he says, as of Christ and the devil, in his net shall he humble him. For the devil laid
death as a net for Christ, but in his own net itself has he been humbled. For in the Death
of Christ was death undone, and the tyrant who thought not to fall was brought to nought.
And it were not hard to add much more to these things: but what is before us, that will we
say. If the Death of Christ were not really and truly the work of Jewish wills, and the
fruit of their unholy daring, but the Divine Judgment were (as some deem) the sole leading
spring thereto: how needed it not that that which was determined upon should of necessity
be accomplished and surely by the hands of men, and not otherwise? How then (tell me)
would they who subserved the irrevocable decrees of God be yet justly punished?

and how would that miserable man, through whom Christ was betrayed, have been in better
case, if he had not been born? For if the Passion be conceived of as willed by the
Saviour, and not unwilled in any other sense, what penalty would he reasonably pay, who
was set forth minister of his Lord's Will, and of things which should surely come to pass?
will it not be evident to all, that the things which seem good unto the Divine and
Ineffable Nature, must surely come to pass, and be done by some? From these things and
many more one may see that since the Son of Man hath come down from Heaven to undergo
death for all men, willing alike was He and unwilling, in order that He might raise up all
at the last day, since so it pleased the Father Himself for the good of all: but He will
not on these accounts that He be conceived of, as by any means of a different nature or in
ought inferior to Him who begat Him.

I suppose then that our opponent will at length blush, and not gainsay our words on this
point: but if he again oppose and have settled that it is fit to wrangle yet more, I say
thus, If the Son hath come down from heaven not to fulfil His Own Will, as Himself says,
but the Will of the Father; and our words on the just concluded consideration thereof,
haply please thee not: must not one say that Their Wills are in opposition, and that Their
Counsel is divided contrarily? But this is clear to all. For if there were no hindrance,
the Will in Both would be perforce wholly One: but if He put forward His Will as it were
diverse from the Will of the Father, and fulfil that, how is it not foolish to say that
they are One, and not other in respect of other? Let us see then wherein is the Will of
the Father; for so shall we discern the other also, whereto it tends. The Will of the
Father then, as the Saviour Himself hath said, is that of all which He hath given Him He
should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last Day. And that it is good and loving
none will gainsay: but transferring our considerations to the opposing will of the Son, we
shall find it neither loving nor good at all, but savouring of what is wholly contrary to
the Father, and willing neither to save us, nor yet to raise us up from death. How then is
He yet the Good Shepherd, how gave He us a token of the Loving-kindness that is in Him, in
giving His Life for us? For if He hath come down from heaven to accomplish this of
voluntary Purpose, how doth He fulfil not His Own Will in not destroying that which, is
brought to Him, but in raising it up at the last Day? But if this was not His Will, but He
subserves rather the Will of the Father, both in raising up and saving, i. e., those who
were lost and overmastered of death, how shall we not be true in asserting that the Son is
neither Good nor in any way Loving to man? Let the Christ-opposer then have done: his
doubt being convicted on all sides of blasphemy, and let him not bay at us concerning
these things with his bitter words.

40 For this is the Will of My Father, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last Day. Having now defined the
good Will of the Father, He makes it clear, and sets it forth more at large for the
consideration of the hearers, through repeating it yet again. For what the mode of
bringing is, and what any gain from being brought, He clearly explains. The Father then
giveth to the Son Who hath Power to quicken them, things lacking life, He giveth thus,
through knowledge inserting in each one, the true apprehension of the Son, and power to
understand purely that He is God of Very God the Father, that he thus minded, and adorned
with contemplations hereto belonging, may be brought to the reward of faith, that is a
lasting and endless life in bliss. The Father then bringeth to the Son by knowledge and
God-befitting Contemplation, those to whom He decreed the Divine grace. The Son receiveth
and quickeneth them, and engrafting His Own Good into them who are of their own nature apt
to decay, and shedding upon them as a spark of fire the life-giving Power of the Spirit,
re-formeth them whole wholly unto immortality. But when thou hearest, that the Father
brings them, and that the Son gives the power of living anew to them that run to Him, do
not go off into absurd fancies, as though Each were supposed to do Individually and
severally what belongs by fitness of Nature unto Each, but rather understand that the
Father is Co-worker with the Son, and likewise the Son with the Father, and that our
salvation and recovery from death to life is the Work (so to say) of the Whole Holy
Trinity. And know that the Father is sufficient unto all might and need, and likewise the
Son, and the Holy Ghost: but through the Whole Holy Trinity come the good things to
usward, and God the Father is found all things in all Entirely through the Son in the
Spirit.

We must nevertheless observe this also, that great is found to be the value of belief in
the Son. For it hath life as its reward. But if God the Father is known in Him Who is Son
by Nature, who will endure any longer them who exclude Him from the Essence of the Father,
and have a mouth unbarred to blasphemy against Him? For wherein He says He can raise again
to life that which has fallen into death, in these same words, without any distinction
intervening, He mounts up to Identity of Nature with the Father. For quickening is a work
proper to life, and since the Father is by Nature Life, Life surely will He too be
conceived Who is of Him by Nature, i. e., the Only-Begotten. 41 The Jews then began
murmuring at Him, because He said, I am the Bread which came down from heaven,

Again are they angry who of those things which are spoken by Christ understand no whit:
and herein may be especially seen the uninstructed mind. For not being able to grasp the
ideas, whereby they might (it is like) be trans-made unto the better, they end in
unseasonable littleness of soul. For shall not we find what has been said true in respect
of the Jews themselves? for why are they angry? what reason called them thereto? why do
they murmur? Albeit they ought rather to have applied a more diligent mind to what was
said, and from the very deeds wrought to have considered the truth, and by the
miraculousness of what had been accomplished, to have come to most tried knowledge,
whether Christ would lie, in calling Himself Bread, and Bread Which had come down from
heaven, or whether He was true, and it was really so. For in this way might they by
judging aright be led easilyunto the discovery of what was profitable for them: but
without any enquiry they are angry, although, in what had already passed, Christ had shewn
Himself the true and Very Bread of Life, contrasting Himself with the manna, which was
given typically and in shadow, to their fathers in the wilderness. For he that cometh to
Me (He says) shall never hunger: whereas they who eat of that manna, obtained some little
and easily-lost fleshly enjoyment; but they who come to Him by faith will not attain unto
an enjoyment like theirs, but will rather have a harvest of the lasting grace of the
blessing.

The mind of the Jews therefore stumbles, looking only to earthly things: and this it was
that was sung of them, Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down
their back alway, that they never turning them to the knowledge of the Divine Mysteries,
may evil evilly perish on account of their own folly, and their most unbridled unbelief.
And we calling to mind what is in the writings of Moses, shall find, that murmuring
against the most excellent and good was inherent in the Jews as a sort of patrimony: but
bitter its end, did experience shew both of old in the case of those and now no less with
these. For those did murmur in the wilderness, and make unthankful outcry against God, but
were destroyed of serpents, as the wise Paul too testified: and these murmur against
Christ, and insult their Lawgiver and Redeemer by their so prolonged unbelief, but command
shall be given to the serpent, and he shall bite them, as it is written: and they shall be
set as a banquet before the all-devouring beast: for ever doth unbelief of necessity
terminate in an all-grievous end.

42 and said, Is not this Jesus the Son of Joseph, Whose father and mother WE know? how is
it then that He saith, I have come down from heaven? O deep unlearning, and understanding
darkened with unmixed strong drink: the heart of this people is waxen fat, as it is
written. For indeed they perceive not a whit of those things which they ought clearly to
understand, and both think and speak things worthy of laughter. For they ought rather,
exercising themselves in the writing of the all-wise Moses, and delighting themselves in
the preachings of the holy Prophets to have considered, that not without flesh or bodily
array was Christ expected to come to us, but in human form was it foretold that He would
appear and that He should be found in this common garb of all. Therefore does the
Prophet's voice tell us that the holy Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son: and the Lord
is found to have sworn in truth unto blessed David, which He promised He would no wise
turn from, that of the fruit of his body would He set upon His throne, as it is written:
it was foretold too that there should come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse. But they
rushing into so great unreason, perceive it not, supposing that since they knew the mother
after the flesh of Him Who was foreannounced to come with Flesh, they ought therefore
utterly to disbelieve that He had come down from heaven.

For even though we do not find that this took place in regard of the Body, yet the Divine
Word dwelt in His Body from the Virgin, as in His Own Temple, having come from above from
the Father unto us, and for the salvation of all laid hold on the seed of Abraham that in
all things He might he made like unto His brethren, and might call the nature of man unto
sonship with God, being declared alike God and Man. But the Jews not understanding the
economy with Flesh of our Saviour Christ, from knowing His mother and father, though he
was not His father, are not ashamed of being annoyed, because Christ said He came down
from heaven. In this too ariseth to us an example of no small profit: for hence we learn
in respect to ourselves, that it will do us much harm, if we do not rather with the
spiritual eyes of the heart consider the virtue that dwells in the saints, and look on the
glory that is hidden in them, but on account of the frequent meanness of bodily appearance
hold of no value what is great before God and precious. Thus God says of the Saints in the
prophets, speaking of all in the person of one, Blessed is the man that trusteth in the.
Lord, and the Lord shall be his hope and he shall be as a tree vigorous by the water-side,
and shall throw forth his root in moist ground, in the year of drought he shall not be
afraid and shall not cease from yielding fruit. Deep is the heart above all things, and
there is a man and who shall know him? I the Lord Who search the heart, who try the reins.
When then WE in our arrogance depreciate him that is known of God, and admirable for the
above-mentioned virtues, looking only to the outward-shewing and perishable flesh, and
making meanness of body an excuse for littleness of soul towards him, how shall we not be
found to be contrary-minded to the King of all, and so incur no slight doom, sometimes
calling what is high low, and putting light for darkness, and sweet for bitter?

We must therefore keep to the saints the honour befitting them, and must look at them
rather through their inward hidden glory, than what they are in the flesh. Yet most of us
cannot bear to think that which is low in the world worthy at all of honour or of any
glory, even though he be renowned in virtue, but looking only to the aggrandisement of
riches, and beholding the perishable and even now dying glory with no righteous eyes, make
no account of right judgment. Such with great reason does the disciple of the Saviour
laugh to scorn, saying, Ye hypocrites, if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold
ring in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment, then ye tell
(he saith) the rich man to sit in an honourable place, and the poor, Stand thou there or
sit under my footstool, are ye not partial in yourselves? Albeit it is meet hence to
observe, to how reasonable a charge they become obnoxious who admire a man for external
surroundings, and not for internal goods. For riches and the glory of riches, bring in (I
suppose) some foreign and factitious glory to their possessors; but the glory in the
heart, and the renown of good works, will be a genuine and native riches to the holders,
not abiding with the flesh and. decaying with it, but dwelling with the soul while yet
abiding in this life, and removing with it on its departure, whithersoever the Ruler of
all shall appoint. For many the mansions with the Father, as we heard.

We must not then honour altogether or of necessity him that is renowned for wealth, and
gilt over with the petty glories of earth as in a picture, but rather them to whom the
splendour of their deeds begets unfading renown from God, and their inward beauty flashes
on them glorified with every form of good things. 43, 44 Jesus answered and said unto them
Murmur not among yourselves; no man can come to Me, except the Father Which sent Me draw
him, and I will raise him up at the last Day. The Jews look down upon Jesus, ignorant that
His Father is in heaven, and in nowise acknowledging that He is by Nature Son of the Lord
of all, but looking only to His earthly mother and Joseph. Wherefore He replies more
warmly to them, and immediately to their profit hastens back to His very God-befitting
Dignity, and whereby He knows as God both their secret murmuring and that which has gone
up into their mind, through these very things He gives them to understand that they have
fallen from the truth, and formed an exceeding mean conception of Him. For how was it not
rather their duty to crown with now God-befitting Honour, Him Who throughly knows the
hearts, and tries the motions that are in the mind, and is ignorant of no device that is
in their souls, and to exalt Him as far above the littleness of man, as God is higher than
the earth? He unveiling therefore the thought buried in yet unuttered blame, and making
manifest the secretly whispered murmuring in them, for the reason already specified, says,
Murmur not among yourselves: then shewing that the Mystery concerning Himself was a God-
taught good in men, and the knowledge of Him a work of the grace from above, He says that
they cannot attain unto Him, save drawn by the teaching of the Father.

But this is the plan of one whose only aim is to persuade them to consider, that they
ought, weeping and sorrowing for those things wherein they had already grieved Him, to
seek to be made free, and to be drawn unto salvation through faith in Him, through the
Counsel of the Father, and the aid from above which lighteneth to them the way and maketh
it smooth, which when they sinned, had become exceedingly rugged. Profitably did He
confirm the promise that He would raise from the dead him that believeth, and hereby again
proves to the senseless ones that He is God by Nature and Very. For that which has the
power of quickening, and of compelling to return to life him that is overmastered by
death, will rightly appertain to the Nature of God only, and be ascribed to no one of
things originate. For quickening is a property of the Living, and not of him who receives
that grace from another.

45 It is written in the Prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Perceiving as God
the folly existing in His hearers, He leaves not this His Word without witness, but shews
already that He was of old fore-announced and fore-proclaimed by the holy Prophets, both
taking away aforehand occasion from those who imagined that they ought to gainsay Him, and
at the same time laying bare no less the unlearning that was in them, in that they were
unable to see this, albeit instructed by the law unto the understanding of things to come.
He persuades them therefore to consent even against their wills: for it was not likely
that they would withstand the voices of the holy Prophets, that God the Father would
instil the Mystery of Himself in those who were worthy, and would reveal His Own Son,
ineffably speaking to each, and in God-befitting way implanting understanding thereof.

But having said above, No man can come to Me, except the Father Which sent Me draw him, He
shews that it is not a compulsory nor forcible drawing, adding, Every man that hath heard
of My Father and hath learned, cometh unto Me. For where there is hearing and learning and
the benefit of instruction, there is faith, to wit by persuasion and not of necessity: and
the knowledge of Christ is given by the Father to them that are worthy, helpful as of
love, rather than constraining. For the word of doctrine requires that free-will and free
choice be preserved to the soul of man, in order that it may ask the just rewards of its
good deeds, and if it have fallen from right, and from heedlessness have transgressed the
Will of the Lawgiver, it may receive the doom of its transgression and that most
reasonable. But we must know that even though the Father be said to instruct any in the
Mystery of Christ, yet He will not work alone to this end, but will rather effect it
through His Wisdom, i. e., the Son. For it is convenient to consider, that not without
Wisdom will the revelation to their understanding be given to any from the Father. But the
Son is the Wisdom of the Father. By means of Wisdom therefore will the Father effect the
revelation of His Own Offspring in them that are worthy. And in fact to speak the whole
truth, and nothing else, one would not do wrong in saying that all the operations of God
the Father toward any, or His Will toward them, are those of the Whole Holy Trinity,
similarly also are those of the Son Himself, and those of the Holy Ghost. For this reason,
as I suppose, when God the Father is said to reveal His Own Son, and to call to Him those
who are more apt to believe, the Son Himself is found doing this, and no less the Holy
Ghost. For the Saviour says to the blessed Peter, who had most courageously made
confession of faith in Him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood revealed
it not unto thee, but My Father Which is in heaven. But in other instances He Himself is
seen, doing this.

And full well doth Paul boast as to himself, crying out concerning the Mystery of Christ,
For I neither received it of men, neither was I taught but by the revelation of Jesus
Christ. And you will see that the Holy Ghost no less reveals Christ to us. And verily the
most wise John writes, And YE, the anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you, and.
ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things:
and the Saviour Himself saith of the Paraclete, that is, the Spirit, I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now: but, when He, the Spirit of truth is
come, He will guide you in all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He
shall hear, He shall speak: and He will declare you things to come. He shall glorify Me,
for He shall receive of Mine and shall tell it unto you; for being the Spirit of Truth, He
will enlighten them in whom He is, and will lead them unto the apprehension of the truth.

And this we say, not as severing into diversity and making wholly separate, either the
Father from the Son, or the Son from the Father, nor yet the Holy Ghost from the Father
and the Son, but since One Godhead truly IS, and is thus preached as viewed in the Holy
and Consubstantial Trinity, the Acts belonging to Each, and which seem to be attributed to
Them severally, are defined to be the Will and Operation of the Whole Godhead. For the
Divine and Unsevered Nature will work through Itself, in no divided way, so far as
pertains to the one count of Godhead, although Each hath Personal Existence: for the
Father is What He is, and the Son likewise, and the Holy Ghost. We must besides note this
also: that things which point to ought by names, are recognised in either, and one may see
the one pointed out in the other. Therefore needs is there that the Son be revealed
through the Father, through the Son again the Father. For Each is surely introduced with
the Other, and if any know that God is by Nature Father, he will full surely conceive of
the Son That is begotten of Him; and just so the reverse. For he who confesses the Son
will not deny the Father.

Therefore in that God is Father, and is so conceived of and proclaimed, He implants the
knowledge of His Own Son in His hearers: in that the Son is said to be, and is in truth,
of Him by Nature, He proclaims the Father: therefore He says, as to Him, I manifested Thy
Name to the men. For since the Son was known by them that believed, He says that the
Father's Name has been made manifest. But God the Father will be conceived of as having
implanted in us the knowledge of His Own Offspring not by a voice breaking forth from
above, and resounding round the earth like thunder, but by the Divine Illumination shining
forth as it were in us, to the understanding of the Divinely-inspired Scripture: but unto
this again you will find the Son a co-Worker in us; for it is written of the holy
Disciples, Then opened He their eyes, to the understanding, that is, the holy Scriptures.

46 Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He which is of God, He hath seen the
Father. Having foreseen as God, that they would no wise receive the revelation through the
Spirit, nor would take in the Wisdom from above in its illuminations, but would reject out
of much ill-advisedness the very duty of seeing the Father and (so to say) of being
instructed by very Visionof God, which as they supposed was once the case with their
fathers, when the glory of God came down upon the mount Sinai: He first draws them back,
and turns them as with a bridle to the duty of not having a gross conception of God, and
of not supposing that the Invisible Nature will ever be visible: for no one (saith He)
hath seen the Father at any time. But probably He was hinting at the hierophant Moses: for
the Jews, in this also thinking very foolishly, supposed on account of his entering the
thick darkness, that he saw the Ineffable Nature of God, and beheld with the bodily eyes,
that which is by Nature the Untaint Beauty. But lest by saying anything more openly
respecting the all-wise Moses, He should seem to be urging them to their wonted state of
mind, He says indefinitely of all alike, and as of him, Not that any man hath seen the
Father. Do not (says He) demand what is above nature, nor be ye borne in senseless course
to that which is unattainable by all things that are made.

For the Divine and Incomprehensible Nature hath retired and is withdrawn not from our eyes
only, but also from those of the whole creation: for in the word No one, He comprehendeth
all things, and in declaring that He Alone is of God, and hath seen the Father, He putteth
Himself outside of all, whereof the 'no one' may be understood declarative. But since He
is apart from all, and while none hath seen the Father, He Alone misseth not the seeing
Him, how shall He not henceforth be conceived of, not among all, as one of them, but
external to all, as above all? And if, whereas all things are said to be of God, and none
seeth the Father (for all things are of God, as Paul saith), He Alone seeth the Father
because He is of God: deeming aright we shall understand the words Of God, to be of the
Essence of the Father, in respect of Him Alone. For if it be not so, why, as we said
before, since all things are said to be of God, doth He Alone attain unto the Sight of Him
That begat Him because He is of God? Wherefore it will be less accurately said of created
things (for all things are of God by creation in that they are brought into being by Him):
but of the Son, in another and truer sense will His being of God, be demonstrated, as
being of Him by Nature.

Wherefore He, not numbered among the all, but being external to all, and above all with
the Father, will not share the infirmity of all, in that He is excepted from affinity with
them, but mounting up unto the Nature of Him that begat Him, will surely see Him from Whom
He is. But how or in what manner, either He beholds the Father, or is seen of the Father,
it pertains not to our tongue to say: we must nevertheless conceive of it in a God-
befitting manner, 47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath
everlasting life. Faith therefore is the door and way unto life, and return from
corruption unto incorruption. But herein no less is the economy a marvel to the learners:
for when He perceived that they understood nothing at all, and saw that they did not
suppose they ought to give any credence even to the words of the Prophets, He cuts off, as
far as possible, their weakness unto faith by human arguments, by an oath to its truth.
For setting before them which believe much to be envied prizes, with their longing desire
for these as with traces. He all but constrains them against their will, and persuades
them to come to what is proclaimed to them. For what would be more precious than eternal
life, to them to whom death and the sufferings from decay are bitter? And this too will
beseem a wise teacher, to re-instruct unto the better, by every way (I say) that invites
unto life, them who have chosen to think foolishly. But He, being Eternal Life, promises
to give Himself to them that believe: that is, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by
faith.

Chapter II. That the Holy Body of Christ is Lifegiving, wherein He speaks of His Own Body
as of Bread.

48, 49, 50 I am the Bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and died:
This is the Bread Which came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.
Full clearly may one herein behold that which was spoken afore by the Prophet Isaiah, I
was made manifest to them that seek Me not, I was found of them that asked not for Me, I
said, Behold Me, unto a nation that was not called by My Name: all the day spread I out My
Hands unto a rebellious and gainsaying people. For, removing the whole casefrom His
speech, and having taken away (so to say) all that cloaked it. He at length reveals
Himself unveiled to them of Israel, saying, I am the Bread of life, that they may now
learn that if they would be superior to corruption, and would put off the death which from
the transgression fell upon us, they must needs approach to the participation of Him who
is mighty to quicken, and destroyeth corruption, and bringeth to nought death: for this
verily is a work proper and most fit for that which is by Nature Life. But since they,
affirming that the manna was given to their fathers in the wilderness, received not the
Bread which of a truth came down from heaven, that is, the Son, He maketh a necessary
comparison between the type and the truth, that so they might know that not that is the
Bread which is from heaven, but He Whom the trial shews to be so by Nature.

For your fathers (saith He) and ancestors by eating the manna, gave to the bodily nature
its need, gaining thereby life for a season, and imparting to the flesh its daily
sustenance therefrom, with difficulty effected that it should not die at once. But it will
be (He says) the clearest proof of its not being the Bread which is from heaven in a truer
sense, that they who partook were no way benefited thereby unto incorruption: a token
again in like way that the Son is properly and truly the Bread of Life, that they who have
once partaken, and been in some way immingled with Him through the communion with Him have
been shewn superior to the very bonds of death. For that the manna again is taken rather
as an image or shadow of Christ, and was typifying the Bread of Life, but was not itself
the Bread of Life, has been often said by us: and the Psalmist supporteth us, crying out
in the Spirit, He gave them bread of Heaven, man did eat angels' bread. For it seems to
have been said to them of Israel by the Spirit-clad, but in truth it is not so, but to us
rather is the aim of the words directed. For is it not foolish and utterly senseless to
suppose that the holy angels which are in heaven, albeit they have an incorporeal nature,
should partake grosser food, and need such aid in order to prevail unto life, as this body
of earth desires?

But I think it nothing hard to conceive, that, since they are spirits, they should need
like food, spiritual (I mean) and of wisdom. How then is angels' bread said to have been
given to the ancestors of the Jews, if the Prophet speaks truly in so crying? But it is
manifest, that since the typical manna was an image of Christ, Which containeth and
upholdeth all things in being, nourishing the angels and quickening the things on earth,
the Prophet was calling that which is signified by shadows by the name of the truth,----
from the fact that the holy angels could not partake of the more earthly food, drawing off
his hearers even against their will from any gross conception as to the manna, and
bringing them up to the spiritual meaning, that of Christ, Who is the Food of the holy
Angels themselves also. They then who ate the manna (He says) are dead, not having
received any participation of life therefrom (for it was not truly lifegiving, but rather
taken as an aid against carnal hunger and in type of the true); but they who receive in
themselves the Bread of Life, will have immortality as their prize, wholly setting at
nought corruption and its consequent evils, and will mount up unto boundless and unending
length of Life in Christ. Nor will it at all damage our words on this subject that they
who have been made partakers of Christ, need to taste bodily death on account of what is
due to nature; for even though they falling into this end undergo the lot of humanity,
yet, as Paul saith, they that shall live, live to God. 51 I am the Living Bread Which came
down from heaven; if any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever.

To say the same things unto you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe,
writes the Divine Paul to certain, in this too (I suppose) instructed by these very words
of the Saviour. For as those who are diseased with wounds, need not the application of a
single plaister, but manifold tending, and that not once applied, but by its continuance
of application expelling the pain: so (I ween) for the soul most rugged, and withered
mind, should many aids of teaching be contrived and come one after the other: for one will
avail to soften it not by one and the first leading, but through its successive coming to
it, even if it come in the same words. Oftentimes then does the Saviour bringing round the
same manner of speech to the Jews set it before them manifoldly, sometimes darkly, and
clad in much obscurity, at other times freed delivered and let loose from all double
meaning, that they still disbelieving, might lack nothing yet unto their condemnation, but
being evil evilly might be destroyed, themselves against their own soul thrusting the
sword of perdition.

Christ therefore no longer concealing anything says, I am the Living Bread Which came down
from heaven. That was (He says) a type and a shadow and an image. Hear Him now openly and
no more veiled, I am the Living Bread, if any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for
ever. They who ate of that died, for it was not lifegiving: he that eateth of This Bread,
that is Me, or My Flesh, shall live for ever. We must then beware of and reject alike
hardening ourselves to the words of piety, since Christ not once only, but oftentimes
persuadeth us. For there is no doubt, that they will full surely be open to the severest
charges, who turn aside to the uttermost folly, and through boundless unbelief, refuse not
to rage against the Author of the most excellent things. Therefore says He of the Jews, If
I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloke for
their sin. For they who have never by hearing received the word of salvation into their
heart, will haply find the Judge milder, while they plead that they heard not at all, even
though they shall specially give account for not having sought to learn: but they who
often instructed by the same admonitions and words to the seeking after what is
profitable, senselessly imagine that they ought to deprive themselves of the most
excellent good things, shall undergo most bitter punishment, and shall meet with an
offended judge, not able to find an excuse for their folly which may shame Him.

And the Bread which I will give is My Flesh for the life of the world. I die (He says) for
all, that I may quicken all by Myself, and I made My Flesh a Ransom for the flesh of all.
For death shall die in My Death, and with Me shall rise again (He says) the fallen nature
of man. For for this became I like to you, Man (that is) and of the seed of Abraham, that
I might be made like in all things unto My brethren. The blessed Paul himself also, well
understanding what Christ just now said to us says, Forasmuch then as the children have
partaken of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. For no
otherwise was it possible that he that hath the power of death should be destroyed, and
death itself also, had not Christ given Himself for us, a Ransom, One for all, for He was
in behalf of all. Wherefore He says in the Psalms too, offering Himself as a spotless
Sacrifice to God the Father, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a Body
preparedst Thou Me. In whole burnt-offerings and offerings for sin Thou tookedst no
pleasure: then said I, Lo I come (in the chapter of the book it is written of Me) to do
Thy will, O God, was My choice.

For since the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sufficed not unto the
purging away of sin, nor yet would the slaughter of brute beasts ever have destroyed the
power of death, Christ Himself came in in some way to undergo punishment for all. For with
His stripes WE were healed, as saith the Prophet, and His Own Self bare our sins in His
Own Body on the tree; and He was crucified for all and on account of all, that if One died
for all, all we might live in Him. For it was not possible that He should be holden by
death, neither could corruption over-master that Which is by Nature Life. But that Christ
gave His Own Flesh for the Life of the world, we shall know by His words also, for He
saith, Holy Father keep them; and again, For their sakes I sanctify Myself. He here says
that He sanctifies Himself, not aiding Himself unto sanctification for the purification of
the soul or spirit (as it is understood of us), nor yet for the participation of the Holy
Ghost, for the Spirit was in Him by Nature, and He was and is Holy always, and will be so
ever. He here says, I sanctify Myself, for, I offer Myself and present Myself as a
spotless Sacrifice for an odour of a sweet smell. For that which is brought to the Divine
Altar was sanctified, or called holy according to the law.

Christ therefore gave His Own Body for the life of all, and again through It He maketh
Life to dwell in us; and how, I will say as I am able. For since the life-giving Word of
God indwelt in the Flesh, He transformed it into His Own proper good, that is life, and by
the unspeakable character of this union, coming wholly together with It, rendered It life-
giving, as Himself is by Nature. Wherefore the Body of Christ giveth life to all who
partake of It. For it expels death, when It cometh to be in dying men, and removeth
corruption, full in Itself perfectly of the Word which abolisheth corruption. But a man
will haply say, fixing the eye of his understanding upon the resurrection of them that
have slept: They who received not the faith in Christ, and were not partakers of Him, will
not live again at the time of the resurrection. What? shall not every created thing that
has fallen into death return again to life?

To these things we say, Yes, all flesh shall live again: for Prophecy foretells that the
dead shall be raised. For we consider that the Mystery through the resurrection of Christ
extendeth over the whole nature of man, and in Him first we believe that our whole nature
has been released from corruption. For all shall rise, after the likeness of Him That was
raised for our sakes, and hath all in Himself, in that He is Man. And as in the first-
formed we fell down into death, so in the First-born again, who was so for our sakes, all
shall rise again from the dead: but they that did good, unto the resurrection of life (as
it is written), and they that wrought evil, unto the resurrection of doom. And I will
grant, that in no passing degree bitterer than death is the resurrection unto punishment,
and the receiving life again unto disgrace alone. In the stricter sense then wo must
understand the Life that is really so, the life in Christ, in holiness and bliss and
unfailing delight. For that this is truly life the wise John too knows, saying, He that
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not
see life, but the wrath of God shall abide on him. For lo, lo, he says that he which is in
unbelief shall not see life: although every creature looks to return again to life, and to
rise again. It is then manifest, that the Saviour with reason called that the life which
is prepared for the Saints, I mean that in glory and in holiness, which that we ought to
pursue after by coming to the participation of the Life-giving Flesh, no right-minded
person will doubt.

But since the Saviour called Himself Bread in many of the passages that have already been
before us, let us see whether He would not hereby too bring to our mind any one of the
things fore-announced and is reminding us of the things in Holy Writ, wherein He was long
ago signified under the form of bread. It is written then in Numbers, And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and thou shalt say unto them., When
ye come into the land whither I bring you, then it shall be, that when YE eat of the bread
of the land, ye shall offer up an heave-offering a separation unto the Lord: a cake the
first-fruit of your dough shall ye offer for an heave-offering: as an heave offering of
the threshingfloor, so shall ye heave it, a first fruit of your dough, and ye shall give
unto the Lord, an heave offering unto your generations. Obscurely then, and bearing a
gross covering as of the letter, did the law typify these things: yet did it proclaim
afore the true Very Bread That cometh down from heaven, i. e., Christ, and giveth life
unto the world. For observe how He made Man like us by reason of His Likeness to us, a
certain First-fruits of our dough and heave offering, as it is written, was offered up to
God the Father, set forth the First-Begotten of the dead, and the First-fruits of the
resurrection of all ascending into heaven itself.

For He was taken of us, He took hold of the seed of Abraham, as Paul saith, He was offered
up, as of all, and in behalf of all, that He might quicken all, and might be offered to
God the Father, as it were the first handful of the floor. But as He being in truth Light,
put that grace upon His disciples; for He says, YE are the light of the world: so too He
being the Living Bread, and That quickeneth all things and keepeth them in being, by a
likeness and through the shadow of the Law, was typifying in the twelve loaves the holy
choir of the Apostles. For thus He says in Leviticus, And the Lord spalce unto Moses,
saying, Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee oil olive pure beaten
for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually without the vail in the tabernacle of
the testimony. And then He proceeds, And ye shall take fine flour, and make twelve cakes
thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And ye shall set them in two rows, six in a
row, upon the pure table before the Lord, and shall put pure frankincense upon each row,
and salt, and it shall be on the loaves for a memorial unto the Lord.

The lamp then in the holy tabernacle, and giving light without the vail, we said in the
foregoing was the blessed John, nourished with the purest oil, that is, the illumination
through the Spirit: outside the vail, because his doctrine was catechetic: for he says,
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. But the things within
the vail, that is, the hidden Mystery of Christ, he sheweth not much. For I (he saith)
baptize you with water unto repentance, but He That cometh after me is mightier than I,
Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with
fire. Seest thou then how he shines, as in simpler speech calling unto repentance; but the
things within the vail he commits to Him That baptizeth with fire and the Spirit, to lay
open? And these things we have set forth more at large, on the words, at the beginning of
the book, He was the burning and the shining light: yet we touched on them now cursorily,
since it was necessary, on John's passing away, to shew that the preaching of the holy
Apostles was near and straightway present.

For for this reason, I suppose, the Scripture, having first signified him by the lamp puts
before us the consideration of the twelve loaves. Ye shall make (it says) twelve cakes:
two tenth deals shall be in one cake. It is the custom of the Divine Scripture, to receive
ever the number ten as perfect, and to acknowledge it as the fullest, since the series and
order of the consecutive numbers, receiving a kind of revolution and mutiplication of the
same into the same, advances and is extended to whatsoever one will. He commands then that
each cake be of two tenth deals, that you may see perfection in the disciples, in the even
pair, I mean both active virtue, and that of contemplation. He bids two rows to be made
(and profitably so) well nigh indicating the very position, which it was (as is like)
their custom to take, ever receiving the Lord in the midst of them, and accustomed ever to
surround Him as their Master. And that we may know that, as Paul saith, they are unto God
the Father a sweet savour of Christ, He bids frankincense to be put on the cakes, and that
they be sprinkled also with salt. For it is said to them, YE are the salt of the earth.
Yea and with reason does He bid it be offered upon the Sabbath day, for they were made
manifest in the last times of the world: and the last day of the week is the Sabbath.

And not only so, but because at the time of our Saviour's coming we held a Sabbath
spiritually: for we rested from sin. And then were the holy Apostles also made manifest
unto us, by whose Divine writings also we nourished attain unto the life in holiness.
Therefore on the Sabbath day specially doth He bid the cakes to be set out upon the holy
table, that is, in the Church. For the whole is often signified by a part. But what is
holier than the holy Table of Christ? Therefore the Saviour was pre-typified as bread by
the Law: the Apostles again as cakes by their likeness to Him. For all things were in
verity in Christ, but by likeness to Him, they belong to us too through His grace. 52, 53
The Jews therefore were striving among themselves saying, How can This Man give us His
Flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said unto them, All things are plain to him that
understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge, as it is written, but darksome to
the foolish is even that which is exceeding easy. For the truly wise hearer shuts up the
more obvious teaching in the treasury of his understanding, not admitting any delay in
respect of this: but as to the things the meaning whereof is hard, he goes about with his
enquiries, and does not cease asking about them; and he seems to me profitably to press on
to do much the same as they say that the fleetest dogs of the chase do, who having from
nature great quickness of scent, keep running round the haunts of their game. And does not
the wise and prophetic oracle call to some similar habit, Seeking seek and dwell with Me?
For the seeker must seek, that is, must bring a most unflinching zeal thereto, and not go
astray after empty speculations, but in proportion as anything is more rugged in its
difficulty, with so much the more vigorous mind must he apply himself and carry by storm
with more resolute onset of his thoughts that which is concealed. But the unpractised and
unteachable mind, whatever starts up before it, rages at it with its unbelief, rejects the
word 'conquering' as spurious, from undisciplined daring mounting up to the last degree of
arrogance. For that which will give way to none, nor think that ought is greater than it,
how will it not at last be, what we have just said?

And we shall find by looking into the nature of the thing that the Jews too fell into this
disorder. For when they ought to have accepted unhesitatingly the words of the Saviour,
having already through many things marvelled at His God-befitting Power and His
incontestable Authority over all, and to have enquired what was hard of attainment, and to
have besought instruction wherein they were perplexed: they senseless repeat How to God,
as though they knew not that it is a word replete with all blasphemy. For the Power of
accomplishing all things without toil belongs to God, but they, being natural men, as the
blessed Paul saith, received not the things of the Spirit of God, but the so dread Mystery
seems folly to them. We then ought, to derive benefit herefrom, and reestablishing our own
life by others' falls, to hold without question our faith in the teaching of the Divine
Mysteries and not to apply How to ought that is told us (for it is a Jewish word, and
therefore deserving of extremest punishment). And when the ruler of the synagogue of the
Jews, Nicodemus by name, on hearing the Divine words, said, How can these things be? with
justice was he ridiculed hearing, Art THOU a master of Israel, and knowest not these
things? Let us then, found more skilful in the search after what is profitable, even by
others' folly, beware of saying How, to what God works, but rather study to attribute to
Him the knowledge of the mode of His Own Works. For as no one will know what God is by
Nature, but he is justified who believeth that He is and that He is a Rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him: so again will one be ignorant of the mode of His several acts,
but by committing the issue to faith, and by confessing the Almighty Power of God Who is
over all, will he receive the not contemptible reward of so good a decision. For the Lord
of all Himself willing us so to be affected saith by the Prophet Isaiah, For My Counsels
are not as your counsels, neither as your ways are My Ways, saith the Lord, but as the
heaven is far from the earth, so are My Ways far from your ways, and your thoughts from My
Mind. But He That so greatly surpasseth us in wisdom and might, how shall He not also work
wonderfully, and overpass our understanding?

I would fain introduce yet an argument besides, no mean one, as I think. For they who in
this life take up the knowledge of mechanics (as it is called) often engage to perform
some great thing, and the way of doing it is hidden from the mind of hearers, till they
have seen it done; but they looking at the skill that is in them, even before the trial
itself, accept it on faith, not venturing to gainsay. How then (may one say) will not they
with reason be open to heavy charges, for daring to dishonour with their unbelief God the
Chiefest Worker of all things, who refuse not to say how to those things which He worketh,
albeit they acknowledge Him to be the Giver of all wisdom, and are taught by the whole
Divine Scripture that He can do all things? But if thou persistest, O Jew, saying How! I
too will imitate for thy sake thine ignorance, and say to thee, how earnest thou out of
Egypt? how (tell me) was the rod of Moses changed into a serpent? how became the hand
leprous, and was again restored, as it is written? how passed the water into the nature of
blood? how passedst thou through the Red Sea, as through dry land? how by means of a tree
was the bitter water of Mara changed into sweet? how too was water supplied to thee from
the breasts of the rocks? how was the manna brought down to thee?

how again stood the Jordan in his place? or how through a shout alone was the impregnable
wall of Jericho shattered? And will that how never fail thee? For thou wilt be detected,
already amazed at many mighty works, to which if thou appliest the how, thou wilt wholly
disbelieve all Divine Scripture, and wilt overthrow all the words of the holy Prophets,
and, above all, the holy writings of thine own Moses himself. It were therefore meeter
far, that, believing in Christ and assenting unhesitatingly to His words, ye should be
zealous to learn the mode of the blessing, and not be inconsiderately intoxicate saying,
How can this Man give us His Flesh to eat? for the word this Man too they say in disdain.
For some such meaning again does their arrogant speech hint at. 53 Verily, verily, I say
unto you, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have not life
in you. Long-suffering truly and of great mercy is Christ, as one may see from the words
now before us. For in no wise reproaching the littleness of soul of the unbelievers, He
again richly gives them the life-giving knowledge of the Mystery, and having overcome, as
God, the arrogance of them that grieve Him, He tells them those things whereby they shall
(He says) mount up to endless life. And how He will give them His Flesh to eat, He tells
them not as yet, for He knew that they were in darkness, and could never avail to
understand the ineffable: but how great good will result from the eating He shews to their
profit, that haply inciting them to a desire of living in greater preparation for unfading
pleasures, He may teach them faith. For to them that have now believed there follows
suitably the power too of learning. For so saith the prophet Isaiah, If ye will not
believe neither yet shall ye understand. It was therefore right, that faith having been
first rooted in them, there should next be brought in understanding of those things
whereof they are ignorant, and that the investigation should not precede faith.

For this cause (I suppose) did the Lord with reason refrain from telling them how He would
give them His Flesh to eat, and calls them to the duty of believing before seeking. For to
them that had at length believed He brake bread, and gave to them, saying, Take, eat, This
is My Body. Likewise handing round the Cup to them all, He saith, Drink of it all of you,
for this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is being shed for many for the remission
of sins. Seest thou how to those who were yet senseless and thrust from them faith without
investigation. He explaineth not the mode of the Mystery, but to those who had now
believed, He is found to declare it most clearly? Let them then, who of their folly have
not yet admitted the faith in Christ, hear, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and
drink His Blood, ye have no life in you. For wholly destitute of all share and taste of
that life which is in sanctification and bliss, do they abide who do not through the
mystical Blessing receive Jesus. For He is Life by Nature, inasmuch as He was begotten of
a Living Father: no less quickening is His Holy Body also, being in a manner gathered and
ineffably united with the all-quickening Word. Wherefore It is accounted His, and is
conceived of as One with Him. For, since the Incarnation, it is inseparable;

except as regards the knowledge that the Word Which came from God the Father, and the
temple from the Virgin, are not indeed the same in nature (for the Body is not
consubstantial with the Word from God), yet are they One by that coming-together and
ineffable concurrence. And since the Flesh of the Saviour hath become life-giving (as
being united to That which is by Nature Life, the Word from God), when we taste It, then
have we life in ourselves, we too united to It, as It to the indwelling Word. For this
cause also, when He raised the dead, the Saviour is found to have operated, not by word
only, or God-befitting commands, but He laid a stress on employing His Holy Flesh as a
sort of co-operator unto this, that He might shew that It had the power to give life, and
was already made one with Him. For it was in truth His Own Body, and not another's. And
verily when He was raising the little daughter of the chief of the Synagogue saying, Maid,
arise, He laid hold of her hand, as it is written, giving life, as God, by His All-
Powerful command, and again, giving life through the touch of His Holy Flesh, He shews
that there was one kindred operation through both. Yea and when He went into the city
called Nain, and one was being carried out dead, the only son of his mother, again He
touched the bier, saying, Young man, to thee I say, Arise.

And not only to His Word gives He power to give life to the dead, but that He might shew
that His Own Body was life-giving (as I have said already), He touches the dead, thereby
also infusing life into those already decayed. And if by the touch alone of His Holy
Flesh, He giveth life to that which is decayed, how shall we not profit yet more richly by
the life-giving Blessing when we also taste It? For It will surely transform into Its own
good, i. e., immortality, those who partake of It. And wonder not hereat, nor ask thyself
in Jewish manner, How? but rather consider that water is cold by nature, but when it is
poured into a kettle and brought to the fire, then it all but forgets its own nature, and
goes away unto the operation of that which has mastered it. We too then in the same way,
even though we be corruptible through the nature of our flesh, yet forsaking our own
infirmity by the immingling of life, are trans-elemented to Its property, that is, life.
For it needed, it needed that not only should the soul be re-created through the Holy
Ghost into newness of life, but also that this gross and earthly body should by the
grosser and kindred participation be sanctified and called to incorruption. But let not
the Jew sluggish of understanding ever suppose that a mode of some new mysteries has been
discovered by us. For he will see it in the older books, I mean those of Moses, already
fore-shadowed out and bearing the force of the truth, for that it was accomplished in
outward forms too. For what (tell me) shamed the destroyer? what provided that their
forefathers also should not perish along with the Egyptians, when death, the conqueror of
all, was arming himself against the firstborn? is it not manifest to all, that when they,
in obedience to the Divine Law sacrificed the lamb, and having tasted of its flesh
anointed the doorposts with the blood, death was compelled to pass them by, as sanctified?

For the destroyer, that is, the death of the body, was arrayed against the whole nature of
man, by reason of the transgression of the first-formed man. For then first did we hear,
Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. But since Christ was about to overthrow
the so dire tyrant, by existing in us as Life through His Holy Flesh, the Mystery was
fore-typified to them of old, and they tasted of the flesh of the lamb, and were
sanctified and preserved by its blood, he that was appointed to destroy passing by, by the
appointment of God, those who were partakers of the lamb. Why then art thou angry, O Jew,
at being now called from the types to the truth, when Christ says, Except ye eat the Flesh
of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have not life in you? albeit thou oughtest to
come with more confidence to the comprehending of the Mystery, pre-instructed by the books
of Moses, and by most ancient figures led most undoubtingly to the duty of faith.

54 Whoso eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. Herein too ought we specially to admire the holy Evangelist openly
crying, And the Word was made Flesh. For he shrank not from saying, not that He was made
in Flesh, but that He was made Flesh, that he might shew the Union. And we do not say
either that God the Word, of the Father, was transformed into the nature of the Flesh, or
that the flesh passed into the Word (for Each remaineth that which it is by nature, and
One Christ of Both); but in a manner unspeakable and passing human understanding, the Word
united to His Own Flesh, and having, as it were, transformed It all into Himself
(according to the operation which lieth in His power of quickening things lacking life)
drave forth of our nature the corruption, and dislodged too death which of old prevailed
by means of sin. He therefore that eateth the Holy Flesh of Christ, hath eternal life: for
the Flesh hath in Itself the Word Which is by Nature Life. Wherefore He saith, I will
raise him up at the last day. Instead of saying, My Body shall raise him up, i. e., him
that eateth It, He hath put I: not as though He were other than His Own Flesh (and not
wholly so by nature), for after the Union He cannot at all be severed into a pair of sons.
I therefore (He saith) Who am become in him, through Mine Own Flesh, that is, will raise
up him who eateth thereof, in the last day.

For it were indeed even impossible that He Which is by Nature Life, should not surely
overcome decay, and master death. Wherefore even though death which by the transgression
sprang on us compel the human body to the debt of decay, yet since Christ is in us through
His Own Flesh, we shall surely rise. For it were incredible, yea rather impossible, that
Life should not make alive those in whom It is. For as if one took a spark and buried it
amid much stubble, in order that the seed of fire preserved might lay hold on it, so in us
too our Lord Jesus Christ hideth life through His Own Flesh, and inserts it as a seed of
immortality, abolishing the whole corruption that is in us. 55 For My Flesh is True Meat
and My Blood True Drink. Again does He contrast the Mystic Blessing with the supply of
manna, and the savour of the cup with the founts from rocky beds. And what He said afore
in other words, this He again says here, manifoldly fashioning the same discourse. For He
does not advise them to marvel overmuch at the manna, but rather to receive Him, as Bread
from Heaven, and the Giver of eternal life. For Your fathers (He says) ate the manna in
the wilderness and died: this is the Bread Which cometh down from heaven, that a man may
eat thereof and not die. For the food of manna (says He) having for a very little time
sported with the need of the body, and driven away the hurt of want, was again powerless,
and did not engraft eternal life in them that had eaten thereof. That then was not the
true Food, and Bread from heaven, that is; but the Holy Body of Christ, Which nourishes to
immortality and life everlasting, is verily the true Food. 'Yea and they drank water also
from the rock.' 'And what then' (He says) 'or what the profit to them who drank? for they
have died.' That too then was not true drink; but true Drink in truth is found to be the
Precious Blood of Christ, Which uproots from the foundation all corruption, and dislodges
death which dwelt in the flesh of man. For it is not the Blood of any chance man, but of
the Very Life that is by Nature. Wherefore we are entitled both the Body and the members
of Christ, as receiving through the Blessing the Son Himself in ourselves.

56 He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood dwelleth in Me and I in him. Manifoldly
does Christ initiate us by these words, and since His Discourse is hard of attainment by
the more unlearned, asking for itself rather the understanding of faith than
investigation, He revolving again and again over the same ground makes it easy in divers
ways, and from all parts illumines what is useful therein, fixing as a kind of foundation
and groundwork the most excellent desire for it. For he that eateth My Flesh (saith He)
and drinketh My Blood abideth in Me and I in him. For as if one should join wax with other
wax, he will surely see (I suppose) the one in the other; in like manner (I deem) he who
receiveth the Flesh of our Saviour Christ and drinketh His Precious Blood, as He saith, is
found one with Him, commingled as it were and immingled with Him through the
participation, so that he is found in Christ, Christ again in him. Thus was Christ
teaching us in the Gospel too according to Matthew, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is like
unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was
leavened. Who then the woman is, what the three measures of meal, or what the measure at
all, shall be spoken of in its proper place: for the present we will speak only of the
leaven.

As then Paul saith that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, so the least portion of
the Blessing blendeth our whole body with itself, and filleth it with its own mighty
working, and so Christ cometh to be in us, and we again in Him. For one may truly say that
the leaven is in the whole lump, and the lump by like reasoning is in the whole leaven:
you have in brief the sense of the words. And if we long for eternal life, if we pray to
have the Giver of immortality in ourselves, let us not like some of the more heedless
refuse to be blessed nor let the Devil deep in wickedness, lay for us a trap and snare a
perilous reverence. Yea (says he) for it is written, He that eateth of the Bread, and
drinketh of the Cup unworthily, eateth and drinketh doom unto himself: and I, having
examined myself, see that I am not worthy. When then wilt thou be worthy (will he who thus
speaks hear from us) when wilt thou present thyself to Christ? for if thou art always
going to be scared away by thy stumblings, thou wilt never cease from stumbling (for who
can understand his errors? as saith the holy Psalmist) and wilt be found wholly without
participation of that wholly-preserving sanctification. Decide then to lead a holier life,
in harmony with the law, and so receive the Blessing, believing that it hath power to
expel, not death only, but the diseases in us. For Christ thus coming to be in us lulleth
the law which rageth in the members of the flesh, and kindleth piety to God-ward, and
deadeneth our passions, not imputing to us the transgressions in which we are, but rather,
healing us, as sick. For He bindeth up that which was crushed, He raiseth what had fallen,
as a Good Shepherd and One that hath laid down His Life for His sheep.

Chapter III. That the Son is not a Partaker of Life from any other, but rather Life by
Nature, as being begotten of God the Father Who is Life by Nature.

57 As the Living Father sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, he too
shall live by Me. Obscure is the meaning of this passage, and enveloped in no passing
difficulty: but it will not entirely attain to impenetrability: for it will be apprehended
and got at by those who choose to think aright. When then the Son saith that He was sent,
He signifieth His Incarnation, and nothing else. And when we speak of His Incarnation, we
mean that He was made Man complete. As then the Father (He saith) hath made Me Man, and
since I God the Word, was begotten Life of That which is by Nature Life, and, made Man,
have filled My Temple, that is, My Body, with Mine Own Nature; in like manner shall he
also who eateth My Flesh live because of Me. For I took mortal Flesh: but, having dwelt in
it, being by Nature Life, because I am of the Living Father, I re-elemented it wholly into
Mine Own Life, I have not been overcome of the corruption of the flesh but have rather
overcome it, as God. As then (for again I will say it shrinking not for profits sake)
although I was made (He says) Flesh (for this the being sent meaneth), I live again
because of the Living Father, that is, retaining in Myself the natural excellence of Him
That begat Me, so he too who, by the participation of My Flesh, receiveth Me in himself
shall live, wholly trans-elemented entire into Me, Who am able to give life, because I am
(as it were) of life-giving Root, that is God the Father.

But He says that He was Incarnate by the Father, although Solomon says, Wisdom builded her
an house: and the blessed Gabriel attributeth the creation of the Divine Body to the
Operation of the Spirit, when he was speaking with the holy Virgin (for The Holy Ghost, he
says, shall come upon thee, and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee) that thou
mayest again understand, that the Godhead being by Nature One, conceived of both in the
Father and the Son and in the Holy Ghost,----not severally will Each in-work as to ought
of things that are, but whatever is said to be done by One, this is wholly the work of the
whole Divine Nature. For since the Holy Trinity is One in respect of consubstantiality,
one full surely will be also Its Power in respect to every thing. For all things are of
the Father through the Son in the Spirit. But what we have often said, this we will again
say. For to say the same things, though it be burdensome, yet it is safe. It was the habit
of our Saviour Christ for our profit to attribute those things which surpass the power
suitable to man, to the Operation of the Father. For He hath humbled Himself being made
Man: and since He accepted the Form of a servant, He spurneth not the measure of servants,
yet will He not be excluded from doing all things with the Father.

And He That begat Him worketh all things through Him, according to the Word of the Saviour
Himself, The Father (He says) That dwelleth in Me, Himself doeth the works. Having then
given to the dispensation of the Flesh what befits it, He attributeth to God the Father
what is above man's power. For the building a Temple in the Virgin surpasseth man's power.
But our opponent will again reply: 'And in what other mode did the Son reveal what He is
by Nature, or how did He shew clearly that the Father is greater, save by saying, I live
because of the Father? For if the Father is the Giver of Life to the Son, who will rush on
to so great stupidity as not full surely to conceive that that which partakes of life,
will not be the same by nature as life or that which is mighty to quicken?'

To such things we too will array in turn the word of the truth, and opportunely say, The
fool will speak folly, and his heart will conceive vain things, to practise transgression,
and to utter error against the Lord. For what can be more wicked than such a conception of
the heretics? How is not the deepest error uttered by them against Christ who quickeneth
all things, since those most foolish ones blush not to say, that He lives by partaking of
life from another, just like His creatures? Will then the Son at last be a creature too,
inasmuch as it is a partaker of life, but is not very life by nature? for the creature
must needs be wholly other than that which is the life in it. But if they suppose that
they may be the same, let them call every creature life. But I do not suppose that any one
in his senses would do that. Therefore neither is the Only-Begotten a creature, but will
be conceived of as by Nature Life: for how would He be true in saying, I am the
Resurrection and the Life? for life is that which gives life, not that which needs to
receive it from another, just as wisdom too is understood to be that which can make wise,
not that which receives wisdom. Therefore according to you the Truth will be false, and
Christ will not be true, Who says, I am the Life.

Yea and the brilliant choir of saints again will speak falsely, uttering words through the
Spirit, and calling the Only-Begotten Life. For the Divine Psalmist is found saying to the
Father, With Thee is the Fountain of Life. And the wondrous Evangelist John in his
epistles thus says, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we beheld, and our hands handled, of the Word of Life: and the
Word was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declare unto you the Eternal
Life, Which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. Seest thou that the Psalmist
speaks true, even by the testimony of John, when he says to God the Father of all, With
Thee is the Fountain of Life? For the Son was and is with Him the Fountain of Life. For
that the Spirit-clad says these things of Him, he will again prove by his words: for he
thus writes, And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding,
that we may know Him That is True, and we are in 3 His True Son Jesus Christ. This is the
True God and Eternal Life. Then who (tell me) will any longer endure the trifling of the
heretics? or who will not justly cry out against their impiety, in daring to say that the
Son is partaker of life from another, albeit the holy and God-inspired Scripture says no
such thing of Him;

but rather openly cries aloud, that He is both God by Nature, and Very, and the Fountain
of Life, and again Life Eternal. For how will He be conceived of as Very God, who needs
life from another, and is not rather Himself Life by Nature? or how will He any more be
called Fountain of Life, if He is holpen by another's gifts to be able to live? But yea
(says the opponent) we grant that the Son is so far Life, that He too can quicken, as
having in Himself the Living Father. Yet this will not suffice, most noble sirs, to exempt
you from blasphemy against the Only-Begotten: but in this too shall your argument be
proved untutored and every way falling to pieces. For to have to say that the Son is
called Life, because He can quicken things recipient of life, by reason He has in Himself
the Father, how is it not replete with unmeasured folly? For ye know not (it seems) what
by nature means, or what 'being of any thing by nature means as compared with so being by
circumstances 4. As fire is hot by nature, and other things too are hot, by partaking of
its operation, as iron or wood: but not because they are heated, are they said to be fire:
for they have an external and not a physical operation in them. But our argument will
proceed by means of illustrations in regard to ourselves too. Grammar for instance, or
Geometry, are held to be species of reasoning science, but when any one becomes skilled in
grammar or the other, he is not himself conceived of as Grammar or Geometry, but from the
Grammar that is in him, he is called a Grammarian, and similarly with regard to the other:
so too that which is by nature life, is something altogether different from the things
wherein it is, transfashioning to itself what is not so by nature.

When therefore ye say that the Father is in the Son, as He might be in matter (for
instance), in order that, since He is Life by Nature, He too may be able to quicken, ye
foolishly grant still that He is Life, and not rather participant of it from another, yet
by relation, and not by Essence called to the dignity of a dispenser thereof. And as one
would not reasonably call the heated iron fire, albeit it has the operation of the fire,
in that it is heated from it: or again a man skilful in grammar is not called grammar,
because he can lead others also unto the science, so I do not imagine that any man of
sense would call the Son Life because He can quicken others also, though He have not by
Nature, according to them, the being Life, but as from the engrafted Operation of the
Father, or by reason of the indwelling Father. For what (tell me) is to hinder us at last
from conceiving of the Son as one of us, that is, of corruptible nature, if He live
because of the Father, that is, having received the gift of life from the Father, as they
understand it? For He would perish, according to the analogy of their notions, if He had
not the living Father in Himself. And if we confess that He speaks truly, I am in the
Father and the Father in Me;

He indeed has in Himself the Father Who is Life by Nature, and is Himself in the Father
though not Life by Nature. I pass over the blasphemy, though one must utter it to convict
the fighters against God of their impiety: for the Father will be found to have in Himself
that which is destitute of Life, that is, decay, or a decaying nature. For since the
nature of the matter in hand compels us so to conceive of the Son, we must investigate
further, and go through various considerations, since our aim is by due precision to
refine the question. You say that God the Father is by Nature Life. Well, so He is, but He
is in the Son also. For this your argument too allows. I would now with reason ask you,
desiring to learn it, 'What will He work in respect of His Son, being in Him? Will He
impart of His Own Life to His Offspring, as though He needed it and had not Life of
Himself? how then must we not suppose the Son to be void of Life? That which is void of
Life, what is it, but subject to decay? But He will not impart of His Own Life to His
Offspring: for He is Life, even though He receive it not from Him.

How then do certain unguardedly babbling still accuse Him, and say that the Son therefore
lives, because He hath in Himself the Father who is by Nature Life? For if He live also
apart from the Father, as being Essentially Life's Very self, He will never live because
of the Father, that is, because of participation of the Father. But if He have the Father
the giver of His Own Life, manifestly He has no Life of His Own. For He borrows it of
another, and is (as we said at first) a creature rather than Life, and of a nature subject
to decay. How then does He call Himself Life? For either we too may safely say, I am the
Life, or if this be no safe word (for it is not lawful for the creature to mount up to
God-befitting dignities), the Son knows that He is by Nature Life: since how will He be
the Impress of the Person of Him That begat Him, how the Image and accurate Likeness? or
how was not Philip right in saying, Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us? For in truth
one ought to consider, that he that had seen the Son, had not yet seen the Father, since
the One is by Nature Life, the Other participant of life from Him. For one will never see
that which quickeneth in that which is quickened, Him That lacketh not in him that
lacketh. Hence in another way too will He be untrue in saying, He that hath seen Me hath
seen the Father.

But he who loveth the pious doctrines of the Church sees what great absurdities will
follow their pratings. Let him then turn from them, and pass away, as it is written, and
let him make straight paths, and direct his ways, and look to the simple beauty of the
truth, believing that God the Father is by Nature Life, the Son Begotten of Him Life too.
For as He is said to be Light of Light, so too Life of Life: and as God the Father
lighteneth things lacking Light by His Own Light, His Son, and gives wisdom to things
recipient thereof, through His Own Wisdom, and strengthened things needing strength,
through again His Own Strength, so too He quickeneth things whatever lack the Life from
Him, by His Own Life which floweth forth from Him, His Son. When then He says, I live
because of the Father, do not suppose that He confesses that He lives because He receives
Life from the Father, but asserted that because He was begotten of a Living Father, that
therefore He also lives. For it were impossible that He who is of a Living Father, should
not live. As though any of us were to say, I am a reasonable man on account of my father,
for I was born the child of a reasonable man: so do thou conceive in respect of the Only-
Begotten also. I live (He says) because of the Father. For since the Father who begat Me
is Life by Nature, and I am His Natural and Proper Offspring, I gain by Nature what is
His, i. e., being Life: for this the Father too is. For since He is conceived to be and is
One of One (for the Son is from the Father, even though He were with Him eternally); He
with reason glories in the Natural Attributes of Him That begat Him, as His Own.

58 This is the Bread Which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and
died; he that eateth of This My Bread shall live for ever. Great (saith He) ought to be
the effects of great things, and the gifts of the Grace from above, should appear God-
befitting and worthy of the Divine Munificence. For if thou have wholly received in faith
that the Bread came, down from heaven, let it produce continous life in them that long
after it, and have the unceasing Operation of immortality. For this will be a clear proof
of its being the Bread from heaven, that is from God: since we say that it befits the
Eternal to give what is eternal, and not the enjoyment of temporary food, which is barely
able to last for just the least moment. For one will no longer wisely suppose that that
was the bread from God and from above, which our forefathers eating, were overcome by
death, and repelled not the evil of corruption, and no wonder; for that was not the Bread
which availeth to render immortal. Hence neither will it be rightly conceived and said by
any to be from heaven. For it was a work befitting that which came down thence, to render
the partakers of It superior to death and decay. By undoubted proof again will it be
confirmed, that this was the Bread from Heaven, that to wit through Christ, i. e., His
Body. For It makes him that tastes thereof to live for ever.

Herein too is seen a great pledge of the Divine Nature, Which vouchsafes not to give a
little thing, but everything wonderful, even surpassing our understanding, so as for the
greatness of the Grace, to be even disbelieved by the more simple. For with so wealthy a
Hand how should not the Will to give largely be present? Wherefore Paul too says in
amazement, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God prepared for them that love Him. By little examples was the Law
typifying great ones, having the shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of
the things, as it is written: as in the food of manna is seen the Blessing that is through
Christ. For the shadow of the good things to come was prefigured to them of old. 59 These
things said He in the Synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. The most wise Evangelist
introducing to us the exposition of marvellous mysteries, with reason attributes to our
Saviour Christ, the commencement of the doctrine thereof, by the clear view of His Person
shaming the gainsayer, and scaring off beforehand those who should come with a view to
gainsay: for sometimes the renown of the teachers makes the hearer more ready to believe,
and demands a more earnest assent on the part of the learners. Full well too does he add,
In the Synagogue. For the expression wellnigh shews that not one chance person, or two,
heard Christ say these things: but He is seen teaching openly in the synagogue to all, as
Himself saith by the Prophet Isaiah too, Not in secret have I spoken nor in a dark place
of the earth. For He was discoursing openly of these things, rendering their judgment
without excuse to the Jews, and rendering the charges of not believing on Him heavier to
the disobedient. For they, if not yet instructed in so dread Mystery, might reasonably
have deprecated punishment, and pleading utter ignorance, have undergone a lighter
sentence from the Judge: but since they knowing, and often initiated, still outraged Him
with their unbelief, how will they not reasonably be punished, all mercy at last taken
away, and pay most bitter penalty to Him that was dishonoured of them? some such thing
hath the Saviour Himself too said of them, If I had not come (He says) and spoken unto
them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloke for their sin.

We must then guard against, yea rather renounce, disobedience, as the bringer in of death,
and look upon faith in what Christ teaches, as the giver of life. For thus shall we escape
being punished with them. But he adds that Christ had spoken these things in Capernaum,
that he may be proved to have remembered accurately. For he that knoweth both place and
village, how shall he fail in the relation of the things taught? 60, 61 Many therefore of
His disciples, when they had heard this, saith, Hard is this saying, who can hear it? When
Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples are murmuring at it, He said unto them, This is
the custom of the simple: they ever find fault with the more subtle doctrines and
foolishly tear in pieces any thought that is above them, because themselves understand it
not: although they ought rather to have been eager to learn, and to have loved to search
diligently the things spoken, not on the contrary to rise up against so wise words, and
call that hard, which they ought to have marvelled at. For they are somewhat in the same
plight, as one may see those in who have lost their teeth. For the one hurrying to the
more delicate food, often reject the more wholesome, and sometimes blame the more
excellent, not acknowledging the disease, whereby they are compelled to decline it: and
these, the foster-brethren of unlearning and bereft of sound mind, shrink from knowledge,
which they ought to have pursued with exceeding much toil, and to have attained by intent
zeal. The spiritual man then will delight himself in the words of our Saviour, and will
justly cry out, How sweet are Thy words unto my throat, yea, above honey and the comb to
my mouth; while the carnal Jew ignorantly esteeming the spiritual Mystery to be
foolishness, when admonished by the Words of the Saviour to mount up to the understanding
befitting man, ever sinketh down to the folly which is his foster-brother, calling evil
good, and good evil, according to the Prophet's voice. He follows again his fathers, and
herein too is he detected imitating the unlearning of his forefathers.

For the one on receiving the manna from God, and being made partakers of the blessing from
above, were dragged down to their wonted coarseness, and sought for the unsavourinesses of
Egypt, desiring to behold onions, leeks, and kettles of fish: and these on being exhorted
to receive the life-giving Grace of the Spirit, and taught to feed on the Very Bread,
which cometh from God the Father, turn aside after their own error, lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God; and as their forefathers used to find fault with the very food
of manna, daring to say, And our soul is dried away with this manna: so do these too again
reject the Very Bread, and blush not to say, Hard is this saying. The hearers therefore of
the Divine Mysteries must be wise, they must be approved exchangers, so as to know the
approved and counterfeit coin, and neither unseasonably to bring inextricable questioning
on those things which are to be received in faith, nor to lavish a faith sometimes harmful
upon those things that require investigation, but to render to every thing that is said
its due, and to advance as it were by a straight path, refusing to turn aside on either
hand. For by a royal road beseems it him to travel who runneth to uprightness of faith
which is in Christ. 62 Doth this offend you? what and if ye shall see the Son of Man
ascend up where He was before?

From utter ignorance, certain of those who were being taught by Christ the Saviour, were
offended at His words. For when they heard Him saying, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you,
they supposed that they were invited to some brutish savageness, as though they were
enjoined to eat flesh and to sup up blood, and were constrained to do things- which are
dreadful even to hear. For they knew not the beauty of the Mystery, and that fairest
economy devised for it. Besides this, they full surely reasoned thus with themselves, How
can the human body implant in us everlasting life, what can a thing of like nature with
ourselves avail to immortality? Christ therefore understanding their thoughts (for all
things are naked and, bared to His eyes), heals them again, leading them by the hand
manifoldly to the understanding of those things of which they were yet ignorant. Very
foolishly, sirs, (saith He) are ye offended at My Words. For if ye cannot yet believe,
albeit oftentimes instructed, that My Body will infuse life into you, how will ye feel (He
saith) when ye shall see It ascend even into heaven? For not only do I promise that I will
ascend even into heaven itself, that ye may not again say, How? but the sight shall be in
your eyes, shaming every gainsayer.

If then ye shall see (saith He) the Son of Man ascending into heaven, what will ye say
then? For ye will be convicted of no slight folly. For if ye suppose that My Flesh cannot
put life into you, how can It ascend into heaven like a bird? For if It cannot quicken,
because its nature is not to quicken, how will It soar in air, how mount up into the
heavens? for this too is equally impossible for flesh. But if it ascends contrary to
nature, what is to hinder it from quickening also, even though its nature be not to
quicken, of its own nature? For He Who made That heavenly which is from earth, will render
it Lifegiving also, oven though its nature be to decay, as regards its own self? Wo must
observe how He doth not endure to be divided into two christs, according to the uncounsel
of some. For He keepeth Himself every way undivided after the Incarnation. For He says
that the Son of man ascendeth up where He was before, although the earthly Body was not
above before this, but only the Word by Itself before His Concurrence with flesh. Well
then hath Paul put in his epistles, One Lord Jesus Christ. For He is One Son, both before
the Incarnation and after the Incarnation, and we do not reckon His own Body as alien from
the Word. Wherefore He says that the Word which came down from above from heaven is also
Son of Man. For He was made Flesh, as the blessed Evangelist saith, and did not pass into
flesh by change (for He is without turning and Unchangeable by Nature as God) but as it
were dwelling in His own Temple, I mean that from the Virgin, and made Man in very deed.
But by saying that He will ascend up where He was before also, He gives His hearers to
understand that He hath come down from heaven. For thus it was like that they
understanding the force of the argument, should give heed to Him not as to a man only, but
should at length know that He is God the Word in the Flesh, and believe that His Body too
is Life-giving. 63 It is the Spirit That quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.

It is not unreasonably (He says) that ye have clothed the flesh in no power of giving
life. For when the nature of the flesh is considered alone and by itself, plainly it is
not life-giving. For never will ought of things that are, give life, but rather it hath
itself need of Him who is mighty to quicken. But when the Mystery of the Incarnation is
carefully considered, and ye then learn who it is who dwelleth in this Flesh, ye will then
surely feel (He says) unless you would accuse the Divine Spirit Itself also, that It can
impart life, although of itself the flesh profiteth not a whit. For since it was united to
the Life-giving Word, it hath become wholly Life-giving, hastening up to the power of the
higher Nature, not itself forcing unto its own nature Him who cannot in any wise be
subjected. Although then the nature of the flesh be in itself powerless to give life, yet
will it inwork this, when it has the Life-working Word, and is replete with His whole
operation. For it is the Body of that which is by Nature Life, not of any earthly being,
as to whom that might rightly hold, The flesh profiteth nothing. For not the flesh of Paul
(for instance) nor yet of Peter, or any other, would work this in us; but only and
specially that of our Saviour Christ in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

For verily it would be a thing most absurd that honey should infuse its own quality into
things which naturally have no sweetness, and should have power to transfer into itself
that wherewith it is mingled, and that the Life-giving Nature of God the Word should not
be able to elevate to Its own good that Body which It indwelt. Wherefore as to all other
things the saying will be true, that the flesh profiteth nothing; but as to Christ alone
it holdeth not, by reason that Life, that is the Only-Begotten, dwelt therein. And He
calls Himself Spirit, for God is a Spirit and as the blessed Paul saith, For the Lord is
the Spirit. And we do not say these things, as taking away from the Holy Ghost His Proper
Existence; but as He calls Himself Son of man, since He was made Man, so again He calls
Himself Spirit from His Own Spirit. For not Other than He is His Spirit.

The words that I have spoken unto you, they are Spirit and are life. He filleth whole His
Own Body with the Life-giving operation of the Spirit. For He now calls the Flesh Spirit,
not turning It aside from being Flesh: but because by reason of Its being perfectly united
to Him, and now endued with His whole Life-giving Power, It ought to be called Spirit too.
And no wonder, for be not offended at this. For if he that is joined unto the Lord is one
spirit, how shall not His Own Body rather be called One with Him? Something of this kind
then He means in the passage before us: I perceive from your reasonings within you (saith
He) that ye foolishly imagine that I am telling you, that the body of earth is of its own
nature life-giving: but this is not the drift of My words. For My whole exposition to you
was of the Divine Spirit and of Eternal Life,. For it is not the nature of the flesh which
renders the Spirit life-giving, but the might of the Spirit maketh the Body life-giving.
The words then which I have discoursed with you, are spirit, that is spiritual and of the
Spirit, and are life, i. e., life-giving and of that which is by Nature Life. And not as
repudiating His Own Flesh does He say these things, but as teaching us what is the truth.
For what we have just said, this will we repeat for profit sake.

The nature of the flesh cannot of itself quicken (for what more is there in Him That is
God by Nature? yet will it not be conceived of in Christ as Alone and by Itself: for it
has united to it the Word, Which is by Nature Life. When therefore Christ calls it life-
giving, He does not testify the Power of quickening to It so much, as to Himself, or to
His Spirit. For because of Him is His Own Body too Life-giving, since He re-elemented It
to His Own Power. But the 'how,' is neither to be apprehended by the mind, nor spoken by
the tongue, but honoured in silence and faith above understanding. But that the Son too is
often called by the name of Spirit by the God-inspired Scriptures, we shall know by what
is subjoined. The blessed John then writes of Him, This is He That came by water and
Spirit, Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and the Spirit : and it is the
Spirit That beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. Lo, he calleth the Spirit Truth,
albeit Christ openly crieth out, I am the Truth. Paul again writes to us saying, They that
are in the flesh cannot please God: but YE are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so
be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you, but if any man have not the Spirit of Christ,
he is not His. But if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is
life because of righteousness. Lo again herein having proved that the Spirit of God
dwelleth in us, he hath said that Christ Himself is in us. For inseparable from the Son is
His Spirit, according to the count of Identity of Nature, even though He be conceived of
as having a Personal Existence. Therefore He often names indifferently, sometimes the
Spirit, sometimes Himself.

64, 65 Yet there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who
they are that believe not, and who should betray Him: and said, Therefore have I said unto
you, that no man can come unto Me, except it have been given unto him of My Father. Herein
again one may clearly see fulfilled that which was fore-heralded by one of the holy
Prophets, With your hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and looking shall
look and shall not see. For the heart of this people is waxen fat, and they have weighed
down their ears and closed their eyes, lest they should at all see with their eyes, and
understand with their heart, and should convert, and I should heal them. For they being
themselves ear-witnesses of the doctrines of the Saviour, and from none other of the
saints learning them, but rather instructed in the mysteries by the Voice of the Lord of
all, yea even seeing Him with their bodily eyes, waxed gross in their folly, and having
closed the eyes of their understanding, turned them away from the Sun of Righteousness,
not admitting the illumination of the gospel instruction. For evil were they, and guilty
of many past offences. Wherefore also the wise Paul testified to us that hardness in part
is happened unto Israel. But since it was the work of no common wisdom to acknowledge that
He Who was veiled in human form is God, He saith that he cannot come to Him who has not
yet received, i. e., understanding from God the Father, and with reason.

For if every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the
Father of lights, how much more will not the acknowledgement of Christ, be a gift of the
Father's Eight Hand, and the apprehension of the truth how will it not be conceived to be
beyond all grace? For in proportion as it is shewn to be the Giver of the highest goods,
so much the more befits it that it depend upon the Divine Munificence. But not to the
unclean does the Father grant the knowledge of Christ, nor to those accustomed to stray
unto extravagant unbelief doth He infuse the most helpful grace of the Spirit: for not on
mud is it right that the precious ointment be poured forth. And verily the blessed prophet
Jeremiah commands that they be first purged by desire unto every good work, who desire to
draw near unto Christ through faith, crying out, Seek ye God and when ye find Him call on
Him; when He shall be nigh to you, let the ungodly man forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his counsel, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon
him, for He will abundantly pardon your sins. Thou seest how he says that he must first
depart from his old way, and remove from unlawful devices, that he may obtain remission of
sins, i. e., through faith in Christ.

For we are justified not by the works of the law, but by the grace that is from Him, and
the forgiveness granted us from above. But some one may say, Therefore what hindered Him
from pardoning the Jews also, and from pouring out remission on Israel together with us?
for this too would befit Him That was perfectly good. And how too (says he) will He speak
truly when He saith to us, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance?
What shall we say then to these things? For them of Israel alone at the first was the
grace of the Saviour devised. For He was sent, as Himself affirmed, only to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. And in truth they who will believe may yet attain unto life
everlasting. But some, living in a nobler course of life, and searchers of the truth,
received the grace of God the Father co-working with them unto salvation through faith and
were saved: but the haughty Pharisee, and the hard-hearted high-priests with them, and the
elders of the people, would not believe, though fore-instructed by Moses and the Prophets.
But since through their own ill-counsel, they at length shewed themselves unworthy of
everlasting life, they received not the illumination which is from God the Father. And you
have the type of this too in the elder writings. For as to them who disbelieved God in the
wilderness, entry into the land of promise was not given; so to these who by their
unbelief dishonour Christ, entrance was not granted into the kingdom of heaven, whereof
the land of promise was the type. And God is not unrighteous Who bringeth His wrath upon
each. For He being Just by Nature, will discriminate altogether rightly, and will direct
His Own Judgment agreeably to His Own Nature, even though we understand not the mode of
the economy which is above us.

Profitably does the blessed Evangelist tell us that Jesus knew all things, and was not
ignorant who should disbelieve, and who was the minister of impiety against Him, that He
might again be conceived of as God, as knowing all things before they are. 66 From that
time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him. Hard indeed is ever
wisdom to the unwise, and what one thinks will yield them no slight profit, is often seen
to be even hurtful. For as to them who are diseased in their bodily sight, the light of
the sun is an enemy, and it is pleasant to them to sit in dark places; so to the sick in
mind, the more difficult doctrines are hateful, and those that are obscured by hard
meanings are an abomination, even though the benefit be great: and petty things are
pleasant, and more acceptable, even though sometimes no advantage accrue. Shall we not
find this true in the present case? when Christ was laying before them the great and
Divine Mystery, and through varied thought was laying open the understanding of it, and
all but gathering up now the veil of the temple, and unveiling the inner tabernacle, they
loath the so wise and heavenly word, they turn aside again to their brutish unlearning,
and went bade, as the Evangelist saith, and refuse to walk any more with Him. For this is
in truth, falling back. Wherefore by the Prophet Jeremiah He says again to the senseless
and obstinate Jerusalem, the nurse of unbelievers, THOU forsookest Me, saith the LORD, and
shalt go backward. For of a truth backward falling follows the rejection of good things:
and God is All Good. Therefore the miserable men went back, and have fallen backwards, not
walking with the Saviour any more, but turning as it were to other paths, and dragged down
to their wonted passions.

But let us see again, whether we do not find the type of this too in the books of Moses.
When then they had travelled through long ways and traversed that wild desert and were now
at the very land of promise, Joshua the son of Nun and certain others with him were sent
by Divine command to espy it. But when they had spied out the whole land and were returned
again to Moses, some of them began speaking bitter things to the synagogue. For the land
(said they) which we spied hath fierce inhabitants, and we saw the sons of the giants
there, and concluded by adding such things as would strike terror into the hearers. But
Joshua after them tried to adorn the land with many praises, and besought them saying, The
land which we searched is an exceeding good land: if the Lord delight in us, He will bring
us thereinto. But the forefathers of the Jews maintained that they ought to stone Joshua:
and having condemned of powerlessness God Who is mighty to all things, they sat down and
wept, as it is written, and hereby with reason provoke the Lord of all. But since they
were thus faithless and outrageous, they fell from the promise: for He says, As I sware in
My wrath, that they should not enter into My rest. And what besides? God commands them to
return and go back again.

For He saith to Moses, To morrow do YE strike your tents and return by the way of the Red
sea. For since they would not enter into the land whereinto they were called, they are
sent to turn round, and are compelled to retrace the same way again. For they would not
follow after the words of Joshua, nor on hearing of the good land, did they honour the
adviser with their assent. What therefore those then suffered, this do these too now. For
taught the way of everlasting life, and exhorted to hasten unto the kingdom of heaven,
they outrage Him with their unbelief: wherefore justly did they go bach, losing by their
own perversity the proceeding onward with their Guide unto salvation. 67 Jesus therefore
said unto the twelve, Would YE also go away? Our Lord Jesus Christ doth not exhort the
holy Apostles to leave Him, nor doth He offer them free and unfettered liberty of doing
so, nor yet doth He permit them readily to turn aside as though they would get no harm
from doing so: yea, rather He threatens them well, that if they be not found superior to
the undisciplined conduct of the Jews, they too shall be sent away, and go no more with
Him, but depart unto perdition. For it is not at all the number of worshippers that is
precious in the sight of God, but the excellent in the right faith, though they be few.
Therefore the Divine Scripture says that many are they that have been called, but that
only the chosen will be received, and those that are approved, being very few. And this
the Divine Word Himself testified to us.

It is therefore as though the Saviour said to His disciples, If ye unhesitatingly believe
My words, if letting go wavering in ought, ye with simple faith receive the Mystery, if it
seem bitter to you and fall of intolerable infamy that My Words are accused of being hard,
if ye refuse to say in Jewish fashion, How can This Man give us His Flesh to eat, I will
gladly see you with Me, and will rejoice in living with you, and will love you as Mine
Own, but if ye choose to think with them who have fallen back, I both enjoin you to run
away with them, and do justly drive you away. For worshippers will not fail Me, seeing the
Gospel message shall be spoken not in Judaea alone, but now goeth about into the whole
world, and calleth men together from all parts as it were into one company, and gathereth
them together with ease unto the acknowledgment of the truth. Behold therefore the
goodness and severity of God, as Paul saith; severity towards the unbelievers, goodness
again towards them who shall acknowledge Him, if they continue in His goodness, as Paul
again affirmeth, else they too shall be cut off. For He That spared not the natural
branches, neither shall He spare them that were graffed in.

Let him then that of folly halteth concerning the faith know and be taught by these
things, that if he will not cease from such a disease, he will go back, and having no
longer any Guide unto eternal life, will go down wretched into hell, and there bewail his
own miscounsel. For there (He saith) shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. It is
probable however that some other profitable lesson is conveyed to us, by Jesus saying to
His disciples, Would YE also go away? for lest they too should be thought to have been
carried off by Jewish folly, and to have stumbled together with the unbelievers, or in any
other way to cry out against Him with them, as though He taught hard things and tried to
instruct His hearers in the knowledge of impossibilities, profitably did He enquire of
them if they desired to depart with them, that hereby He might invite them to confession
of the right and untaint faith, which indeed also came to pass. CHAPTER IV. That a type of
Christ was the holy Tabernacle which led the people in the wilderness, and that the ark
that was in it and the lamp and the altar, as well that of incense as that of sacrifice,
signified Christ Himself.

68 Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go away? Thou hast the words of
eternal life. By the mouth of one the chief do all speak, preserving the knowledge that is
in truth most well befitting saints, that in this too they might be found an ensample to
those who should come after them, to wit of sober and admirable reasoning. For it was meet
that they should speak in the ears of their Master, not all confusedly hurrying to get
before the rest, and unmeetly seize on speech, but wisely to be ready to give way to those
who had the first place, both in wisdom and rank. Wherefore Paul too saith, Let the
prophets speak two or three, and by course. For not because they were honoured with the
grace of prophecy, was it therefore decreed that they should speak in a disorderly manner;
but because they were wise, therefore were they commanded to speak the more wisely to
their hearers. It was then an act of wisdom befitting saints, to leave it to him alone to
answer for all, who had the preeminence in place. To whom therefore shall we go away (he
says) instead of, who shall instruct us in like wise? or, to whom shall we go, and find
what is better? Thou hast the words of eternal life: not hard words, as those say, but
words which bring us up to the chiefest of all, to unceasing, endless life, and removed
from all decay.

It is (I suppose) perfectly clear to us from these words that we must sit by One only
Teacher, Christ, and cleave unceasingly and indissolubly to Him, and make Him our Master,
who knoweth well to guide our feet into the unending life. For thus, thus shall we mount
up to the Divine and heavenly courts, and hastening into the church of the first-born,
shall feast on the good things that pass man's understanding. For that it is a good thing
and salutary to desire to follow Christ Alone and ever to be with Him, the very nature of
the thing will indubitatively prove: yet no less shall we see it from the elder
Scriptures. When therefore they of Israel having put off the tyranny of the Egyptians were
pressing forward to the land of promise, God suffered them not to make disorderly marches,
nor did the Law-giver let each go where he would. For there is not a doubt that having no
leader they would have gone utterly astray. Wherefore it is written again for our
ensample, in the book called Numbers, And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up,
the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely the tent of the testimony; and at even there was
upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. So it was alway:
the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. And when the cloud went
up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place
where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents: at the
commandment of the Lord shall they set forth, and the children of Israel shall keep the
charge of God and shall not rise up. By the voice of the Lord shall they pitch and by the
command of the Lord shall they journey. Thou seest how they are bidden to follow, and to
journey with the journeying of the cloud, and to halt again with it and with it to rest.
For the being with their guide was salvation both then of them of Israel, and to us now
the not departing Christ is so.

For He was with them of old under the form of tabernacle and cloud and fire. But the order
of the narrative shall be transferred (as far as we are able) to the spiritual
interpretation, for when Wisdom, as it is written, builded her an house, and pitched the
truer tabernacle, that is, the Temple of the Virgin, God the Word, Who is in the Bosom of
God the Father, came down thereinto in a manner incomprehensible and God-befitting, and
was made Man, that to those who are already enlightened, and walk as in the day, as Paul
saith, He might be a cloud overshadowing them, and put an end to the heat of our passions
from infirmity: but to those who are still ignorant, and straying, and living as it were
in night and darkness, a fire to give light and transform to fervency of spirit. For we
believe that those who are good are warm through the Spirit. For I think that for no other
cause did the cloud appear over the tabernacle by day and the fire by night, than for that
given above by us. But He enjoined those who were appointed to follow, not to set out of
their own accord on their journey, but to set out with the tabernacle and with it to halt,
that in type again you may understand what is said by Christ, He that ministereth to Me,
let him follow Me: and where I am, there shall My minister also be.

For steadfastness in following, and constancy in cleaving, is signified by his
accompanying Him, uninterruptedly. And the accompanying the Saviour Christ and following
Him, is not to be understood at all of the body, but is attained rather by virtue in
action, in regard whereof the most wise disciples having fast fixed their mind, and having
refused as leading to destruction, to go back with them that believed not, with reason cry
out, Where can we go? as though they said, With Thee will we abide and will ever cleave to
Thy commands, and will receive Thy words, not finding fault with ought, nor with the
uninstructed ones, think that hard which Thou sayest in Thine instruction, but think
rather, How sweet are Thy Words unto my throat, above honey and the honeycomb unto my
mouth. Such then is the meaning of this passage. But that the tabernacle was to them of
old a type of Christ we shall know, by applying a subtle mind to the things said
respecting it unto the holy Moses. Our discourse on these matters may haply seem
discursive to some, but it will produce no slight advantage. For we ought (I deem)
zealously to refine on these points, repudiating the censoriousness of those who
unreasonably blame us. The Divine oracle then is on this wise: for we will set it forth in
order, refining the shadow of the letter, as far as we can. And the LORD spake (it says)
unto Moses, saying, On one day of the first month at new moon, shalt thou rear the
tabernacle. What induced the Lord of all (one more diligent in learning may reasonably
ask) to order the tabernacle to be set up in one day, and not in two, or three, and in the
new moon, and that not simply of any month, but of the first. Such things may reasonably
cause us a long investigation, since nought of the things said in the Scriptures is for
nothing. Therefore (for we will follow up our own discourse on these things) the
tabernacle that was reared signifies the Holy Body of Christ and (so to say) the pitching
of His Precious Tabernacle, wherein it was well pleasing that all the fulness of the
Godhead should dwell bodily.

Moreover He commands it to be pitched in one day, and this most wisely and economically,
in order that by the one day you might understand the existing life, in which alone He
became Man. It is fit that we understand by the new moon, nothing else save the sojourn of
our Saviour which reneweth us, by which old things are passed away, all things are become
new. For a new season was manifested to us in Christ, thrusting away the oldness of the
legal worship, and re-ordering us unto a new and fresh life through the Gospel teachings,
yea and renewing unto the beginning of righteousness them which had waxen old from sin,
and were ready to vanish away, and undoing the oldness of the corruption that had been
brought in, and beautifying with the newness of incorruption those that through faith had
hastened unto eternal life. For if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, as it is
written.

But He commands the Divine tabernacle to be reared in the first month, when the beauty of
spring-time shines forth, washing away (as it were) the dejection of winter, and the earth
is softly cherished by now brighter and purer suns, and the vines bloom, and the
husbandman revels in the sweet odours of the flowers, and the plains bear grass, and whole
fields bristle with the ears of corn, as certain of the Greek poets say, when the winter
is past, as it is written, the rain is over and gone, when the time of pruning is come on.
All these you will understand spiritually, that the winter at its end and the rain passing
away, are the temptations that fall on us of devilish tyranny, and his ambitious
usurpations over all; for the might of the devils was brought to an end in the days of
Christ, and the bright Sun rose upon us, to wit, that whereof God the Father says, And the
Sun of Righteousness shall arise upon you, warming with fervency of the Spirit, those who
were swooned in sin, unto righteousness. The spiritual vines again and flowers and ears of
corn, you will understand to be the Saints which excel in manifold piety towards God, and
shoot forth the many-hued fruit of virtue.

And (we must speak briefly) the spring brings forth flowers and prepares the whole earth
to bear grass, and crowns the meadows with new bloom, and brings into fresh youth the
trunks long dry with the intolerable violence of the winter, and brings them to a goodlier
appearance, and makes them bud around with their wonted leafage, and prepares the
husbandman who owns them to glory in their natural fruits. Some such thing shall we find
happen as regards ourselves too. For we who have long been withered by reason of the sin
that reigneth over us, and destitute of fruit unto virtue, have revived unto righteousness
through Christ, and do now yield the fresh and new fruit through faith to the Dresser of
our spirits. And thus do we fitly understand that which is spoken by one of the holy
Prophets as in the Person of Christ, I who speak, am at hand as the spring upon the
mountains. But what the spring, i. e., the season of spring, worketh upon the mountains,
we have already spoken of.

Profitably then does He command that the tabernacle be set up in one day, holding out a
type of Christ, that you may understand thereby His Death once for all in this one present
time. For He will not be born again hereafter, nor yet will die, having once for all been
born and died and risen from the dead. For the Resurrection, which is as it were, a
pitching of the holy tabernacle, must of necessity follow His Death. But it is in the new
moon, because in Christ we have a new age: for what is in Him, are a new creature. And the
first month is taken, signifying the renewal of human nature from death and decay to life
and incorruption, and its passing at length from barrenness to fruitfulness, and its
escape from the tyranny of the devil, like the winter now passed away and come to its
close. Again in another way does he shew us Immanuel in type and figure saying, And thou
shalt place the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail. For in the
preceding the Word was limned in the complete tabernacle (for it was the House of God
indwelling therein, to wit, the Holy Body of Christ) but no less is the same signified to
us by the ark individually 6. For it was constructed of undecaying wood, that you might
understand His Body incorruptible: it was overlaid with pure gold within and without, as
it is written 7;

for all belonging to Him is Precious and royal, both the Divinity and the Humanity, and in
all things He hath the preeminence as Paul saith. And the gold is taken as a type of
honour and excellence above all things. The ark then was fashioned of undecaying wood, and
overlaid with gold, and had the Divine law deposited therein, for a type of God the Word
indwelling in, and united to, His Holy Flesh (for the Law too was the Word of God,
although not the Hypostatic Word, as the Son is). And it is covered by the veil. For God
the Word Incarnate was unseen of the many, having His Own Body as a covering, and lying
hid within His Own Flesh as with a veil, so that thence certain not knowing His God-
befitting Dignity, at one time endeavoured to stone Him, imputing it to Him, as a crime,
that He being Man, said He was God, at another time, they blushed not to say, Is not this
Jesus the Son of Joseph, whose father and mother WE know? how doth He now say, I have come
down from heaven? The veil then cast upon the ark, signifieth that Jesus will not be known
by the many. The ark too was therefore a type of Him, wherefore also did it precede them
of Israel in the wilderness, filling the place of God: for He was the leader of the
people.

And the Psalmist is a witness of this, saying, O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy
people, when Thou didst march through the wilderness, the earth shooh, the heavens also
distilled. For in that the ark ever marched before and preceded, God is openly declared to
have gone before. You may have a clearer proof of this, considering this. God once
commanded to them of Israel by Moses to go up boldly unto mount Seir, and to besiege the
Amorite, but they who were so commanded having fallen into feeble cowardice, and
attributing success to their own strength, and not rather trusting to the succour from
above, sat and began weeping by the mountain, as it is written, whereat the Law-giver was
justly provoked, and threatened that He would not bring them into the land of promise.
They cut at last by the threat, and urged to an unseasonable repentance, attempted to go
up, by a second disobedience, and snatched up arms against the Amorites. But God foretold
them the result by Moses: for He said unto them Ye shall not go up (it says) and ye shall
not fall before your enemies for I am not among you. But they every way diseased with
disobedience, forced themselves and went up unto the mountain, as it is written.
Nevertheless (it says) the ark of the covenant of the Lord went not up with them, for it
remained in the camp.

Seest thou that upon God's saying, I am not among you, the ark goeth not up with the
disobedient, shewing clearly to them of more understanding that it held the place of their
leader God? Yea and it was borne around Jericho by the priests, and the lofty wall thereof
fell down, not by applying engines and rams, but rather by trumpets and shouting: and this
again we shall find to be true in Christ. For He it is Who is borne by saints and holy men
and overturns the whole might of the devil, not by arms, but by a shout and a trumpet,
that is by Apostolic and Evangelic preaching, and the assent of all the people, confessing
their own Lord in uprightness of faith. This too we see accomplished in the Mystic
doxologies, the priestly trumpet, that is, the voice of the minister, preceding the
people, and thus falls and is shattered the power of the adversaries, for our weapons are
not carnal, as Paul saith, but mighty to God. That Christ is after a sort borne and rests
on His saints, both the prophet Habakkuk will declare saying, Thou wilt ride upon thine
horses and Thy chariots are salvation, and the Saviour Himself no less will teach us,
saying to Ananias concerning Paul, Go thy way, for this man is a chosen vessel unto Me, to
bear My Name before all the Gentiles.

Yea and thou shalt bring in the table (it says moreover) and set in order what layeth
thereon and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and set thereon his lamps. You will
understand Christ by both, for He is co-figured under the form of a table having bread set
upon it, because in Him are all nourished unto life Eternal, according as He says, I am
the Bread; Which came down from heaven and giveth life unto the world: if any man eat of
This Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread that I will give is My Flesh for the
life of the world. That then, which is set forth upon the table, i. e., the loaves,
signifies the Holy Body of Christ, which nourisheth all men unto Eternal Life. But since
the blessed David, and they that were with him, being an hungred, as it is written, did
eat the shewbread, let us see whether something mystical be not hereby too recorded. It
was not lawful to taste of the shewbread, save by the Priests alone, by appointment of the
Law: but David and they that were with him, being not of the priestly tribe, took of the
most holy food, that hereby again might be signified the faith of the Gentiles, and in
part of them of Israel. For Christ was due to them of Israel, as to them who were more
holy by reason of the fathers, and the Law: but the multitude of the Gentiles although
they were, by reason of their straying, profane, somehow entered in too, and did eat the
Bread of life, David accompanying them and as it were filling up a type of the preserved
of Israel, which the blessed Isaiah too calls a remnant. For many of them have believed on
Christ.

Thus therefore will Christ be conceived of through the holy Table: but He is again the
candlestick, as giving light to the whole house, that is, the world (for I am the Light of
the world, He says) but it holdeth seven lamps and not one: for manifoldly doth He
illumine and by diverse graces enlighten the souls of the faithful: again it is of pure
gold, in that it is above all and Precious: moreover it has a solid stem (for so is
written) for there is nothing empty nor yet light in Christ. It has lilies too by reason
of its good savour of holiness, according to, I am a flower of the plain, a lily of the
vallies. Its feeders again signify the ministrations of Divine graces. Moreover the
prophet Zechariah testified that two olive branches are round about it, that you may
understand that the people compassionated are two, whom he called sons also of fatness and
says that they stand by the Lord of the whole earth, although in that the olive branches
are seen by the lamp, he hereby gives the clearest demonstration that Christ is the
candlestick, Who through obedience and faith set by Himself both the people of the
Gentiles and that of the Jews.

He proceeds, manifoldly pointing Him out to us, And thou shalt set the altar of gold for
the incense before the ark and put the hanging of the veil at the door of the tabernacle
of witness, and the altar of burnt offerings thou shalt set at the door of the tabernacle
of witness and shalt cover the tabernacle, and all things that are therein shalt thou
hallow all round. For we must observe how Christ is represented to us in both altars. For
after He had ordered the golden altar to be laid by 8, whereon was the incense before the
ark, and had said that hangings should be put across before the doors of the tabernacle,
that the interior might not be seen, He commands the altar of burnt-offerings to stand at
the door of the tabernacle of testimony, not invisible, nor hidden: for it was without the
veil. Behold Him then, by the altar of incense ascending up as an odour of a sweet smell
to God the Father (for this the incense signifies), by the altar of burnt offering,
offered up as an Offering and a Sacrifice in our behalf. But the golden altar was hidden
by the veil (for hidden was the glory of Christ), the other, that of burnt offerings,
whereon are the sacrifices, was visible, for manifest was the Death of Christ and known to
all. Their position is not without a distinction, for the one was over against the ark,
the other by the doors of the tabernacle.

And the position of the golden altar in front of the ark, as it were in the Presence of
God the Father, darkly hints that marvellous is the glory of the Son, as it is said, No
man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father. But the position of the altar of burnt
offering at the very doors of the tabernacle, holding out a type of His Death and of His
Sacrifice for all, again signifies, that no otherwise can we come to God the Father, save
by the Sacrifice of Christ, as He says, I am the Door, and No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. Further, He commanded the tabernacle to be pitched round about, comprehending
all things that were therein, that it might be seen to be one, and not many. For One is
Christ among us, even though He be manifoldly conceived of, a tabernacle by reason of the
veil of Flesh, an Ark holding the Divine law as the Word of God the Father, a table again
as Life and Food, a candlestick as spiritual Light, both altar of incense, as an odour of
a sweet smell in sanctification, and altar of burnt offering, as a Sacrifice for the Life
of the world. And all things that are therein are sanctified; for Christ is holy All of
Him and howsoever He be conceived of.

Since the holy tabernacle then was their leader, they of Israel are commanded with it to
set out and with it to rest: God again instructing us and teaching us to our profit, to
take as our Leader and. Guide in the way unto salvation, God the Word Who for our sakes
was Incarnate, and by obeying unhesitatingly His Commands, to mount up unto eternal life.
And this they who had been instructed in the mysteries in many words not chusing to do,
went bach and walked no more with Him. But most wisely does the blessed Peter say to the
Saviour, Where can we depart? for in no way to go astray from God, but rather to strive to
be with Him spiritually, is in truth most comely for saints. 69 And WE have believed and
know that THOU art the Christ, the Holy One of God 9. Marvellous is the faith of the holy
Apostles, fervent their manner of confession, most loveable and pre-eminent their
understanding. For not like certain of the more ignorant, or like them who used to call
the Word of the Saviour hard, did they rightly go back and fall, nor of lightness readily
caught were they called to belief, but being fully assured beforehand and persuaded of a
truth that their Instructor was full of life-giving Words, the Teacher of heavenly
doctrines. Exceeding stable is such faith, but that which is not so, is (as is like)
easily spurned, and having no root as its assurance, is very readily worn away out of the
mind of man. And verily the Saviour Himself in Parables, when He was discoursing of the
sower, that which fell upon tho rock (He says) and hath no root withered away, darkly
saying that the mind which is dried up and can in no wise receive the Word once cast into
it, is a rock. For the wretched Jews being now in this case from their utter ignorance,
were being taught by the Prophet's voice, Bend your hearts and not your garments. For as
before the casting in of the seed, the custom of husbandry advises that the ground should
first be cleft with the plough: so I deem ought they who approach to receive the Divine
Words in some sort to open out aforehand their hearts by desires thereunto: and thus
receiving it, do they render the soul travailing like fruitful soil.

Therefore in full assurance of faith do the most wise disciples say that they know and are
confident that He is Christ the Son of the Living God. And with great wisdom will you find
their speech constructed as to this again. For they say they believe and know, joining
both together. For one must both believe and understand: nor, because the more Divine
things are to be received in faith, ought we therefore completely to depart from all
investigation respecting them, but rather we should try to attain even so unto a moderate
knowledge, as in a glass and a riddle, as Paul saith. Well again do they not say first
that they know, then believe, but putting faith first, they bring in knowledge, and not
before faith, as it is written, If ye will not believe, neither shall ye understand. For
simple faith having been fore-laid in us, as a kind of foundation, knowledge is afterwards
built up upon it by degrees, and brings us up to the measure of the mature agethat is in
Christ, to a perfect and spiritual man. Wherefore God also somewhere says, Behold I will
lay for the foundations of Sion a stone, choice, a corner stone, precious. For Christ is
to us a Beginning and foundation unto sanctification and righteousness, through faith,
that is, and not otherwise: for thus He dwelleth in us.

But observe how they say throughout in the singular number, and with the article prefixed,
THOU art the Christ, the Son of the Living God, removing from the many who are called in
grace unto sonship, as One and Special, Him who is truly Son, in Whoso likeness WE too are
sons. Again they call Him the Christ as One: but we must know that He is not called Christ
on His own account, or as being so Essentially just as He is Son, yet is He One in truth
and specially (for none among anointed ones is as He is) yet in respect of His likeness to
us is He called Christ. For His Own Proper and specially distinct Name and Reality in
truth, is SON; but that which is common with us is Christ. For since He was anointed in
that He was made Man, therefore is He Christ. If then we attribute the being anointed to
the need of human nature, He will be conceived of as Christ in respect of His likeness to
us, and not in the same way as He is Son, nevertheless One Only by Nature and Specially,
both before Flesh and with Flesh, and not two, as some suppose, who (it seems) understand
not the depth of the Mystery. For not into a man hath the Word of God the Father come
down, as the grace of the Spirit upon one (for example) of the holy Prophets, but Himself
was made Flesh, as it is written, to wit Man.

Indivisible therefore is He after the Union, and is not severed into two Persons, even
though we conceive of the Word of God as something other than the Flesh wherein He hath
dwelt. And since the whole choir of the holy Apostles confirms to us the faith herein, in
that they say they know (and that peculiarly) that He is the Christ the Son of God, we
shall not, if we deem aright, admit those who shrink not of their folly from making
innovations on these things. 70, 71 Jesus answered them, Did not I choose you twelve, and
one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon, for he it was that
should betray Him, being one of the twelve. He continues His reproach, and clenches them
with severer words, cutting off that which is slack and fallen into negligence in their
desire to be wise. For He almost seems to say somewhat of this sort, "O My disciples, this
is the time for heed and wit and a mind braced unto the desire of salvation. For most
slippery is the way of perdition, which drags downwards not only the feeble mind, but also
that which already thinketh it standeth fast. Very perilous and of many forms is sin,
which bewitches the mind of man by its manifold pleasures and most smooth lusts, dragging
it to what it ought not. Your own case (He saith) shall be an example of what I say. For I
will tell you; none of those who from lightness have now fallen back, did I choose as I
have done you who were good (for as God, I knew what was in you) yet did Satan get hold of
one of you through greed of gain, and My Judgment was surely not deceived. For in man is
free-will and choice to go to both, either to the right hand, or to the left, i. e., to
virtue or vice.

Therefore at once by His severer chiding, does He both rouse unto becoming watchfulness,
and render each one more steadfast regarding himself, for He does not yet say clearly who
shall betray Him, but laying the burden of iniquity upon one alone and indefinitely, He
was bringing them all to the contest, and inviting them to more careful circumspection,
each one dreading the loss of his own soul, and at the same time was He working another
thing for the benefit of His disciples' faith. For when they confessed that they knew, and
firmly believed, that He is the Son of God, He shews that He fore-knows things to come, by
this too shewing as it were that their confession regarding Him was sure. For the
knowledge of things to come befitteth none save One Alone, Him That is by Nature God, of
Whom it is also written, Who knoweth all things before they be. But He called the worker
of the Devil's will a devil, and not untruly. For as he that is joined unto the Lord is
one Spirit, so is the reverse also true.

Chapter V. On the feast of Tabernacles, that it signifies the restitution of the hope due
to the Saints, and the resurrection from the dead; on the words, Now the feast of the
Jews, that of Tabernacles was at hand.

Chap. vii. And after these things Jesus used to walk in Galilee, for He would not walk in
Jewry, because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. After these both words and deeds (he
says) Christ again more gladly made His sojournings in Galilee: for this, I suppose, is
the meaning of used to walk, yet he shews that His being with them was not of His Own
choice, but rather happened of necessity, adding the reason. For the Jews (he says) wished
to kill Him. Wherefore He gave Himself over for a long time to the aliens, refusing to
walk in Jewry. But I suppose again that in these words no less is Israel found fault with
for its extreme perverseness, if indeed the being found among the Gentiles was shewn to be
far better than living with it. And this it was that was uttered by the prophet Jeremiah,
I have forsaken Mine House, I have left Mine heritage; I gave My loved Soul into the hand
of her enemies. For Christ's being made an outcast because of the impiety of them that
persecute Him, and going away among the Galileans, how is it not plainly the giving up of
His Own Soul into the hands of her enemies? For the Gentiles are Christ's enemies, in that
they do service to another and worship the creature instead of the Creator, because they
had not yet received the faith in Him. And this Himself will teach us clearly, saying, He
that is not with Me is against Me. But I suppose every one will say that the Gentiles were
not with Christ, previous to their true knowledge of God and faith;

they were therefore against Him, and hence in the rank of His enemies. This being so and
clearly acknowledged, so great abomination was practised among them of Israel, that He was
in better case, living among His enemies, and making His abode with them with whom He
least ought was pleasanter, than what was meeter far and more congenial, to be among them
who are His kinsmen after the flesh and, on this ground, bound to love Him. With greatest
reason then did Christ depart unto the Gentiles, and by the very act of doing so did He in
a manner say, that if they did not desist from persecuting Him, and from destroying with
their mad folly their Benefactor, Christ would wholly give Himself to those without, and
remove unto the Gentiles. As then we said that He hinted this by this act, so again we
shall find that by a figure of old did He threaten His departure from Jerusalem.

When then He was ordering the laws about sacrifices, as is written also in Leviticus,
having fore-appointed, as for an image of Christ, that a bullock should be brought as a
gift and a whole burnt-offering to the Lord, he again outlines Him in another way, saying,
If his gift to the Lord be of the sheep, of the lambs and of the kids, for a whole burnt
sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish, and shall lay his hand upon the head
thereof and they shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before the Lord. How
then the Mystery of Christ is shaped unto us by these things, we must needs enquire. And
first I think we ought to speak of the situation both of the Temple itself at Jerusalem
and of the Divine altar, that so we may understand, what is the meaning of that the sheep
is not to look straight before it, but rather to be turned toward the north. The territory
of the Jews therefore lies in the more southern quarters of the earth, and the temple
faces eastward and opens its doors toward the first rays of the sun; yea and the Divine
altar itself, reared over against the holy, as it were in the sight of God, shewed its
front to those who enter from the East, its two sides looking one south, the other north.
That it actually is as we have said, you may have full proof from the passage of the
Prophet Ezekiel.

For when he was being taught about the death of Phaltias 10, i. e., in spiritual vision,
he says thus, And I saw, and lo about five and twenty men, their backs towards the temple
of the Lord and their faces right away, and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.
But if a man worshiping the rising sun have the temple behind him, how must one not
suppose that the front of the temple was turned eastward? But in the same position was the
Divine altar itself, as we have said. Therefore the front giving entryboth of the temple
itself and of the Divine altar was to the east: the two sides, one to the south, the other
to the north; and the side yet remaining, which is conceived of as the back, looking
westward. The things therefore we have said being thus, we shall find that north of it
lies the neighbour of Judaea, Galilee, that is, the country of the Gentiles, as it is
written, Galilee of the Gentiles, Since then our Lord Jesus Christ was about, after His
saving Passion, to depart out of the country of the Jews, and go into Galilee, that is, to
the church of the Gentiles, the sheep that was taken in type as a sacrifice, was slain at
the side of the Altar so as to look northward, according as it is spoken by the Psalmist
of Christ, His eyes look unto the nations.

But since the blessed Evangelist says that He refused His Presence to the Jews, because
they were plotting to kill Him, we will add this to what we have said, that we do not
consider the withdrawal of Christ as an imputation of cowardice, nor yet will we therefore
accuse of weakness Him That is mighty unto all things, but we will accept the mode of the
economy. For it beseemed Him not before His time, but in His own time to endure the Cross
for all. 3, 4, 5 His brethren therefore said unto Him, Depart hence and go into Judaea,
that Thy disciples also may see the works that Thou doest (for no man doeth anything in
secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly); if Thou do these things, manifest Thyself
to the world. For neither did His brethren believe on Him. The reputed brethren of the
Saviour not yet recognizing God the Word indwelling in His Holy Flesh, nor knowing at the
time when they are saying these things, that He was made Man, have still petty conceptions
of Him and think far too little of the grace and excellence that is in Him, seeing nothing
more than the rest, deluded by the common opinions of Him, thinking that He too was in
truth begotten of their father Joseph, and not seeing the hidden provision of the Mystery.
For when many (as is like) miracles were being wrought secretly by Christ in Galilee, they
persuade Him to seek after vain glory, and advise Him to receive the wonder of the
spectators, as though it were some great thing, as though for the sake of this alone, He
were willing to perform the several miracles He had wrought, in order that He might just
seem an object of wonder to the beholders, and might revel in the praise of men, after the
fashion of some whose habit is to seek for glory. For see how they counsel Him to go up to
Judaea. and to work miracles there rather, not in order that His disciples might believe
on Him, but that they might see the works which He doeth. For (say they) if Thou wilt be
known (for this is the meaning of "openly") be not a worker of marvels in secret, nor,
since Thou art preeminent in Thy Power of doing all things, shun publicity:

for so shalt Thou be renowned to the world, and more illustrious among beholders. This
then is their address here. And profitably does the most wise Evangelist note that not yet
had His brethren believed on Him. For it would indeed have been one of the strangest
things, that they who through faith had already taken hold of God-befitting acknowledgment
of Him, should be guilty of such cold expressions. But at that time having not as yet
believed they speak wisely, but when they understanding the great mystery concerning Him
had believed, they hasten on to such a height of piety and virtue, as both to be called
Apostles, and to attain illustrious piety. This too you have, fore-sung by the voice of
Prophets. And verily the blessed Jeremiah says, as to our Lord Jesus Christ, For both thy
brethren and the house of thy father, they too despised Thee, and they cried out; of thy
followers were they gathered together: believe them not, for they will speak fair words
unto Thee. For His brethren who before the faith thought little of Him, and in the words
just spoken, all but attempt to cry out against Him, were gathered together through faith,
and have spoken fair words unto Him, both aiding others, and striving with words in behalf
of the faith. Very watchfully did the Prophet, having named His brethren, profitably add,
The house of Thy father, lest they too should be supposed to have been of the blessed
Virgin, rather than of His father Joseph alone.

6 Jesus saith therefore unto them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready.
The Saviour's discourse is always overshadowed, for so is it written of Him, And He shall
be a Man That hideth His Words. And that this too was contrived to their profit, who that
is wise will not say? Not yet therefore is the time (He says) for unrestrained publicity,
nor yet of manifestation unveiled unto all, since the mind of the Jews is not yet ripe
unto understanding, so as to be able to receive My words without wrath and anger: nor yet
doth fit opportunity summon Me now to be altogether made known unto the world, since the
Jew's have not yet wholly fallen from grace, nor yet so raged against Me, that I must
needs at length depart unto others. For this reason then does He say that not yet is His
time come, but says that theirs is come, and is always ready. For we say that men of the
world may do as they list, no necessity hampering them, or calling them to an opportune
economy which avises them whether they ought to do any thing or not, as was the case with
Christ. On the contrary, the manner of living of those who have chosen life in the world,
is remiss and free from more laborious care, bringing in opportunity ever ready and
unfoldedunto what likes them best and readily permitting those who practise it, to go
whithersoever they list.

When therefore things are necessarily subjected to economies, not every time is fit for
doing what has to be done, but that which fits each several duty, according as the nature
of the thing demands: but on one who has chosen to live unbound is no such thing imposed:
but rather,the path to wherever they would go, is ever most ready and wholly unlet. 7 The
world cannot hate you, but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that its works are evil.
Very kindly now also doth the Saviour reprove His brethren, who are still too worldly-
minded and disposed, and brings forward a second defence, mingled with skill, whereby He
shews that not only are they ignorant Who He is by Nature, but are still so far removed
from love to Him, as to choose to live in a way not unconformed to them who admire living
in the world, and not rather in virtue. For it would have been verily most absurd to say
to everybody else what would be of use, having laid aside all disguise about it, yet not
to bestow on His reputed brethren, in far greater measure, things wherewith they, having
now the Giver of wisdom, might learn with no slight profit. And this is the custom of our
Saviour Christ. For He sometimes seizing favourable opportunity fashioneth great
instruction unto His hearers. Ever dear therefore (saith He) to each is that which is akin
to it, and identity of habit wondrously bringeth together unto agreement. The world doth
not hate you (for ye savour yet that which is of it) but Me it hateth, taking not kindly
its being accused by Me for its unseemly deeds. Therefore with safety will YE go up to the
feast, I not. For I shall surely dispute and being present tell them what is for their
good; but bitter to lovers of pleasure is reproof, and meet for kindling unto wrath him
that receives it not in due sobriety of mind.

But in these words again doth the Lord profit us too. For it is profitable not to make
one's reproofs inconsiderately, nor to give to all instruction through reproof, but to
know what is written, Rebuke not the bad lest they hate thee (for hatred is not unharmful
to us) but rather to be zealous to speak in the ears of them that hear, as it is written.
For the world loveth sin, the Lord is a corrector of them that act not rightly: and
correction must often be attained by reproof. For the mere enumeration of sin, is a rebuke
to those who love it, and the reproof of iniquity, is blame to those who have it. When
therefore necessity calls the teacher to administer reproof, and the mode of cure requires
this to be gone through, and he that is being against his will instructed by rebuke is
exceeding angry, then must the ills of hatred surely arise. Therefore does the Saviour say
He is hated by the world, in that it cannot yet bear exhortation with rebuke, when it
ought to do so for profit sake. For the mind that is in bondage to evil pleasures, is
quite angry with the advice that would persuade it to due sobriety. And these things the
Saviour says, not altogether saying that He will not go to Jerusalem, nor refusing to give
the reproofs which may be profitable to the sinners, but minded to do this too and every
thing else at the fit time.

And we must observe that He says something of the same kind to His own disciples also. For
when He was encouraging them, and teaching them not to be too indignant at the things that
should come to pass, when they should preach Him to the world, and fall into a thousand
trials in consequence, He says, If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, but
because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you; calling the world here
not the visible creation, but rather they who savour the things of the world, by whom one
who loves not the same as they and that exceedingly is deemed an hard man and an adverse
and an enemy: but akin and dear is he who consents with them, and by sameness of life is
entangled together with them in congeniality in baseness. 8 Go YE up unto this feast, I go
not up unto this feast, for My time is not yet fulfilled.

The Lord now says clearly that He will not feast with the Jews, or go with them, to
partake with them in their rejoicing in shadows. For that which is once said to a few,
albeit reputed His brethren, will be extended in its force to the whole race of Israel.
For no one will say that Jesus refused to be with His brethren on their own account in
particular, seeing He was plainly with them in Galilee, and we must suppose that not
without a purpose by reason of His generally supposed relationship after the flesh, did He
also dwell with them. It is manifest then, that the whole multitude of the Jews being
introduced in a type by His brethren, Christ declines feasting with them, according to
that which is said by one of the holy Prophets, I have hated, I have thrust away your
feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies: for even though ye offer Me
whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them, and will not look at your
assembly of thanksgiving: take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs and the psalm of
thine instruments I will not hear. For God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must
worship Him in spirit and in truth, as the Saviour Himself saith.

But being a Spirit, He would (one may think) take pleasure in spiritual honours and
offerings, for a type too whereof by command of the law, were the sacrifices of oxen and
sheep, oblations moreover of frankincense, of fine flour and wine and oil, duly appointed,
signifying by more visible forms the many hues of the virtue of them that worship in
spirit. Do YE then (He says) who still love the shadow, and are more grossly and Jewishly
affected concerning these things, go up to the assembly that is in shadows and types; Me
it pleaseth not so to feast; to this feast I go not up, that, namely, in type and outline:
for I have no pleasure in it, but rather I await the time of the true assembly, which is
not yet full come. For then, then (He says) shall I be together with My company rejoicing
in the brightness of the saints, in the glory of the Father, flashing forth extreme
brilliance. But He says His and calls the time His own. For His is the feast, He the
Master of it. For to Him did the blessed Jeremiah ascribe it, saying to those who have
neglected piety to God-ward, and held for nought the desire to excel in goodness, What
will ye do in the day of the Assembly, and in the days of the feast of the Lord?

For ye (He says) who totally reject all toil for virtue, and have not the bright robe of
the love of God, what will ye do in the day of the assembly, how shall ye come in to the
Divine and Heavenly Feast, or how shall not the master of the Feast with reason thrust you
forth from the most glorious choir of them that were bidden, saying, Friend, how earnest
thou in hither not having a wedding garment? Akin to this, and bringing us the same
meaning, is that in the Prophet Zechariah, And it shall come to pass (he says) that every
one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from
year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
He says that they which are left shall go up to worship the great King, and to accomplish
the feast of tabernacles. For whereas many have been called by grace, not many are they
who go up to the city above; for few are the chosen, as the Saviour saith, taken to wit
out of every nation. But in saying that they shall go up to worship, he shews that they no
longer perform the worship of the law, but rather that in spirit, and keep the feast of
tabernacles in truth, well-nigh with clear voice singing that verse of the Psalms, Blessed
be the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplication:

on Him trusted my heart, and I was holpen, and my flesh revived. For the flesh revived,
and will live again, and that not apart from Christ: for He hath been made to us the
First-fruits of the resurrection, and the door of the truer feast of tabernacles. And this
it was that was said by one of the holy Prophets, I will raise up the tabernacle of David
that is fallen. For the tabernacle that fell, of Christ Who is of the seed of David
according to the flesh, was first raised to incorruption by the Power of God the Father,
according to what is said to the Jews by one of the Apostles concerning Him, This Man
delivered up by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, ye took by hand of
ungodly men and crucified and slew: Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death,
because it was not possible that He should be holden of it, and again, This Jesus God
raised up, whereof all WE are witnesses. For that it is the custom of the Divine
Scripture, to call Christ, Who was of David after the flesh, David, is not at all hard to
see.

9, 10 When He had said these words unto them, He abode in Galilee: but when His brethren
were gone up, then went He also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
Christ dwells gladly in Galilee, and banished from the country of Judaea, takes up His
Abode more peaceably and securely, that again the multitude of the Gentiles albeit
exceedingly uninstructed, by reason of the error that yet holdeth them, might be shewn to
be nobler than those who seemed to be skilled in the law. By this He shewed both His just
love for thorn, and most reasonable hatred of them of Judaea. For how would not He Who
knoweth all things before they be, be so affected, as to deem the church of the Gentiles
already worthy of the Divine Love, since it was so easily called to believe on Him; and at
length to cast off and justly loathe Jerusalem as senseless, He who even before the times
of His coming is said to have desired her beauty, according to the voice of the Psalmist,
but called the stiff-necked Jerusalem an harlot and an adulteress, and of the like of this
what did He not call her? Most clearly in truth doth He by the Prophet Ezekiel say to her,
Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord, and by the voice of Jeremiah accuseth her
as an adulteress, calling out, As a wife rejecteth her husband, so the house of Israel
rejected Me, saith the Lord.

As having then according to the fore-knowledge of God-befitting Counsel, surveyed the
beauty of the Church of the Gentiles, and the baseness of the synagogue of the Jews in its
wicked ways, He already before-loveth the one and goeth in unto her, as to a bride in the
chamber, but fore-hateth the other, reserving for the fit time what was due in full
measure to each. For He neither brings wholly upon them of Israel punishment before the
time, nor gives Himself wholly to Galilee before the saving cross: for then He could with
justice and on reasonable causes, withdraw from His Love to them. Having then said that He
would not go up to this feast, and having permitted His brethren to do so, if they would;
by Himself (for He affirmed that His time was not yet come) does He go up after them, not
saying one thing and doing the contrary to what He says (for that would be lying, albeit
guile, that is, falsehood is said not to have been found at all in His Mouth) but minded
to what He promised. For He goeth not up to feast with them, but rather to admonish them,
and (since He came to save) to say and teach the things which lead to life everlasting.
For that this was His aim, His not wishing to go with them that were going up, and going
up hardly and secretly, not openly and with the joy of those who go to a festival, will
clearly shew.

And verily, when at length He was going up to his saving Passion, He went up not in
secret, but borne upon an ass's colt, as a type of the new people, with an almost
innumerable company of children preceding Him, fulfilling the part of the people that
should be born, of whom it is written, And a people which is created shall praise the
Lord. And the children going before were shouting, Blessed is He That cometh in the Name
of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest. Therefore by coming up in secret, He shews that
Christ came to Jerusalem by no means to feast with them, but rather to dispute against
them: for as we have before said, He doth not wholly depart from Israel, till on being
delivered up to death, it is clear that He deservedly did so. But as to His saying that He
would not go up, and afterwards not refusing to go up, you will find the type of it
fulfilled long ago in the book called Exodus. For the Divine and most holy Moses was
making long stay in the Mount with God, awaiting the law that was to be given by Him. And
Israel disregardful of piety towards God, was making a calf in the wilderness. But the
Law-giver is justly angered at these things, and having cried out against the lightness of
those who so readily turned aside to what they ought not, and having threatened to utterly
destroy them at once, at last He says to the holy Moses, Depart and go up hence, THOU and
thy people which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt unto the land which I sware to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, Unto your seed will I give it: and I will send an angel
before thee. Then Moses says to Him, If Thyself go not with me, bring me not up hence, and
how shall it be truly known that I have found grace in Thy Sight, I and Thy people, is it
not in that Thou goest with us? And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also
that thou hast spoken, for thou foundest grace in My Sight. Seest thou how He, grieved at
the apostacy of Israel, affirmed that He would not go up with them into the land of
promise, but said that He would send an Angel, yet out of respect to Moses and the
remembrance of their fathers, He granted them pardon and promised again to go with them.

Having then said that He would not feast with the Jews as being haughty and violent, as
dishonouring God by their denial of Him, as these did by making the calf, yet being very
slow to anger towards the offences of those who grieve Him, and rather fulfilling His
Promise to the holy fathers, He goes up to teach and to set before them the doctrines of
salvation, not committing such a ministry to an Angel, just as He did not then, but rather
being Himself the worker even for the salvation of the unthankful. 11 The Jews therefore
were seeking Him at the feast, and said, Where is that Man? The Jews seek Jesus, not that
they may believe on Him when they have found Him (for surely would He preventing their
search, have offered Himself, according as it is said of Him, I was found of them that
sought Me not, I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me) but of their
exceeding transgression falling into the vain toil of the Greeks, and emulous of their
habits rather than of those things whereby it was like that they should be enlightened by
the grace from above. For those of the Greeks who seem to be wise, filled with worldly and
devilish wisdom, expend long and subtle discourses, and revolve cycles of vain
propositions, and weaving the spider's web, as it is written, make feint to investigate
what is the nature of truth or goodness or justice, and, moulding to themselves a shadow
only of the true knowledge, abide wholly untasting of the virtue that is in deeds, and
remaining destitute of the true wisdom which is from above, make their exercises about
words alone to no profit. The Jews again, brothers and neighbours of their unlearning,
seek for Jesus, not that they may believe on Him when they have found Him, as the nature
of things proved, but that they hitting Him with their many revilings, might bring the
fire unquenchable upon their own heads. And in another respect we shall suppose they made
most idle search. For they only pretend to seek Him, because He is not present.

For (says one) 'the Wonder-worker ought to be present with the feasters,' seeking rather
pleasure in the enjoyment of it, and not at all the profit from the marvel; but wrapped
round in conceit of knowledge of the law, and thinking that they were to no slight degree
instructed in the sacred writings, they are unmindful of the Prophet's voice thus
speaking, Seek ye God, and in finding Him call upon Him; when He shall draw nigh you, let
the wicked man forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his counsel, and let him return
unto the LORD, and He will have mercy. Seest thou how it will not suffice unto salvation
to seek only, but when we have found, to turn to also, i. e., by obedience and faith? So
might the foolish and refractory people of the Jews have been saved: but since in this too
they are found exceedingly unwise, they will at length with reason hear, How do ye say, WE
are wise, and the Law of the Lord is with us? in vain to the scribes was their lying pen.
The wise men were ashamed, dismayed, taken: what wisdom is in them? because they rejected
the Word of the Lord? For how did they not reject It, who received It not? how did they
not despise It, who in boorish wise refused not to say of It, Where is That Man?

For the expression That Man, belongs to the abandoned, and them who no longer deem fit to
wonder at Him, although from His so marvellous working, they ought to have had the most
exalted conception of Him. 12 And there was much murmuring of the people concerning Him.
Some said, He is good, others said, Nay, but He deceiveth the people. Ever hard of
attainment and difficult of acquirement is goodness, and the power of tracking the beauty
of truth is hard of accomplishment to the many, specially the more unlearned and those who
have no acuteness of understanding, who from most foolish swayings of thoughts without
understanding turn aside to what seems to them easier, and not enduring to prove the
nature of whatever offers itself, will never attain to the true quality of things, albeit
Paul says, Be ye approved bankers, and persuades us to prove all things, so as by accurate
investigation to arrive at the attainment of what is profitable. Let them hear then, who
of their exceeding folly marvel not at Jesus but think that it is fit to condemn Him
without enquiry, Taste and see that the LORD is good. For as they who prove choice honey
by the taste, and from the merest taste perceive what they are in search of, so they who
make even a little trial of the words of the Saviour, will acknowledge that He is good,
and will marvel in learning it.

The wiser then among the Jews plead Christ's cause, and give right judgment concerning
Him, consenting to Him as Good, considering (as is like) this above all, that it would not
be possible for one to accomplish the things which God evidently works, unless He were by
Nature God, or partaker of God, and therefore Good, to Whom would befit the approval of
all, and to be instrengthened with grace from above, even though this were not so in
Christ, for Christ is Himself the Lord of powers. But they wade in most absurd
imaginations, and go astray far from the truth, who shrink not from calling Him a
deceiver, who directs unto the unerring path of righteousness. Let the foolish Jew then
hear, Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and
light for darkness. For along with approving wickedness, ranks the finding fault with
good, and keeping back from evil its most deserved reproof, and casting upon them that are
ranged on the side of good the blame which is no wise due unto them. But the charges
against them for these their revilings were foretold also, for Woe (He says) unto them,
for they swerved from Me, wretched are they because they transgressed against Me: I
redeemed them, THEY spake lies against Me.

13 Howbeit no man was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews. There was murmuring
among the Jews, and for fear of the Jews, he says that no man could speak openly. The
Divine Evangelist then is calling the rulers of the Jews emphatically Jews, not deigning
(as seems to me) to call them elders or priests, or the like, kindled with pious jealousy
unto grief to themward, whom with reason does God accuse of destroying His spiritual
vineyard, saying in the prophets, Many pastors destroyed My vineyard, they defiled My
portion, they gave My longed-for portion for an impassable wilderness, it hath become a
vanishing of perdition. For how shall we not suppose that the Lord's vineyard hath in
truth been destroyed by their abominations, when they shewed that even to agree with the
good, and only to marvel at that which is worthy of marvel is hazardous? But that this too
works a sorer punishment for the rulers of the Jews and the rest of them, what wise man
will doubt? Lo, for lo, the whole people fear and tremble before them, yet are not
instructed in the law, nor yet taught to live in a fitting manner, although very zealously
subjected to their injunctions. For fear is a proof of the very highest subjection.

They were compelled then to transgress rather than wisely to look into the purpose of the
Law-giver, and (in that they dare not so much as praise what is good) to give by no means
a voluntary, but a constrained, judgment of evil against whosoever the others choose, and
to condemn as base, Him That is worthy of praise and admiration. Just as a man therefore
who has good skill in sea-faring matters, and sits at the ship's helm, and having her at
his command dashes her against the rocks, would be himself held guilty of the wreck: or as
if one accustomed to drive, were borne along by swiftest ponies, and being able by the
checks of the reins to hold their easily-directed flight whithersoever he would, were to
dash the wheels against a stone, not to the ponies would he reasonably attach the blame of
the misfortune, but rather to himself:----in like manner, I deem, the rulers of the Jews,
having the people of the Jews not only honouring them, but even serving them by fear as
well, if they manage them contrary to Divine Commands, shall justly themselves incur
responsibility for the loss of all. But that themselves were the cause of the perdition of
the people, the prophet Jeremiah will testify, saying, For the pastors became brutish,,
and sought not out the LORD: therefore the whole flock understood not and were scattered.

14 When it was now mid-feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching. Temple-
befitting is the teaching of our Saviour: for where else should we rather hear the Divine
Voice, save in the places where the Divinity is believed to dwell? For God tendeth all
things, and will not be conceived of as circumscribed by space, in respect of His Own
Nature, but is wholly uncontained by things that are, yet is it more meet that we should
suppose that He dwells in the holy places, and we most reasonably deem that the will of
the Divine Nature will specially be heard by us in sacred places. But what again was
pictured to them of old in type and shadow this now Christ transforms into truth: for God
says to the hierophant Moses, And thou shalt set the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in
the ark thou shalt put the testimonies that I shall give thee; and there will I be known
to thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two
cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, in respect of all things which I shall
command thee unto the children of Israel. But our Lord Jesus Christ, when it was now the
middle of the feast, as it is written, having entered as God into the holy places dedicate
unto God, there speaks to the multitudes, although He went up in secret.

As therefore upon the mercy seat in the tabernacle, God's descent was secret, and then
scarcely perceived, when the time for His speaking was come, and to one then also, to the
blessed Moses, did God talk, speaking to none other:----so did Christ too instruct the one
race of the Jews; and converse with one people, having not yet unfolded His grace as
common to the Gentiles. And exceeding well does the blessed Evangelist say, not simply,
Entered, but Went up into, the temple. For a high thing, and very far surpassing our
grovelling baseness, was His entry into the Divine school, and sojourn in the holy places.
But the type of the act is true as to us. For it was Christ who sanctifieth the temple,
and of this Moses of old was a type anointing the tabernacle with the hallowed oil, and
sanctifying it, as it is written: albeit it needed rather that man should be sanctified by
the holy places, than sanctify them: but there is no account taken of things done in a
type for the truth's sake, for the sake of which the things in shadows were moulded, as
one may see in the holy Prophets also. For one was commanded against his will to go in
unto an harlot, another to walk naked, yea, also to lie upon his right side for many days.
These things were performed for the sake of their meanings, and not surely for their own
sakes.

Thus then, the blessed Moses too was bidden to sanctify the tabernacle, albeit he needed
rather to receive sanctification from it, that Christ again may be understood in him,
sanctifying His Own Temple, although He lived with flesh among the Jews, and in it spake
to the multitude, as did God of old from the mercy seat. 15 The Jews therefore were
marvelling, saying, How knoweth This Man letters, having not learned? Not unreasonable is
the wonder of the Jews, but there is something subtle in their argument. For it was likely
that they would be astonished at seeing Him strangely excel both in word and knowledge,
Who could not have been rich from instruction. For the mind of man is recipient of wisdom,
and even though one do not as yet seem wise, yet is his nature exceedingly well adapted to
the attainment of wisdom and knowledge on some subjects. But in the case of those who are
not well exercised in learning, the natural advantage gets somehow stopped up and dulled;
in that of those who are accustomed to go through such toils, and to revel in literary
exercises, it is very clear, and apt for good practice, and is found to have no mean store
of letters and wise contrivances.The Jews then are astonished, giving heed to the Saviour
Christ, not yet as being by nature God, but still as a mere Man, and they marvel that He
abounds in wisdom, not having the provider hereof, i. e., practise in reading,for that He
knows letters untaught. This too then with the rest is a charge of Jewish folly: for it
should have seemed nothing wonderful to them, that Wisdom, the Artificer of all things,
that is, the Only-Begotten Word of God, Which was among them lying hid in the form of a
Man, should not need letters.

This again must be observed for our profit. For above when they were seeking for Jesus
they say, Where is That Man? (as though they knew Him by His miracles alone: not yet
knowing accurately, Who, or of Whom, or whence He was) but here not as though ignorant of
ought respecting Him, but as knowing all things clearly, they say that He also knoweth
letters not having learned. The more obscure enquiry therefore respecting Him of the
common people and of those who had no accurate knowledge of Him, uttered Where is That man
contemptuously, that of those who knew Him the other. More severe punishment then shall
they undergo who were not ignorant than they who were: for to the one their ignorance is
an excuse, to the other their knowledge condemnation. Therefore is it said that to some it
is better not to have known the way of truth. For in knowledge there is greater
punishment, because men are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Jesus then,
according to the difficulty of the Jews, knew letters, having not learned, Moses was
learned (as it is written) in all the wisdom of the Egyptians: yet as knowing nothing at
all, albeit exceeding wise among those, was he instructed unto better knowledge by the
oracles from God, the wisdom of the world being convicted as feeble, through the Diviner
and more excellent, in which or through which we are instructed in the things of Christ,
receiving the understanding which is truly from above and from God.

Christ then is the in all things perfectly Good, the one of all things both Wisdom and
Understanding, in respect whereof He has the excellency not by teaching, but innate. And
verily the Prophet Isaiah saith of Him, that before the Child shall know good or evil, He
shall refuse evil to choose good. And let us not foolishly suppose, that the Divine and
Heavenly Offspring, in discernment of reasonings or by the choice of the better turneth
away from evil, and applies Itself rather to good: but as if one should say of fire, that
it refuses cold; its not admitting the being cold does not indicate choice of wills in it,
but rather most steady adherence of nature to what is its own, so is it in respect of
Christ. For all good things are in God of Nature, and are not introduced from without; and
so wisdom too was in Him, yea rather, Himself is properly and speciallythe Fount of
wisdom, through which He gives wisdom in part to those in participation thereof, both
Heavenly and earthly reasonable beings.

16 Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not Mine, but His That sent Me. We shall
find that indeed true that is written by one of the wise men, The Spirit of the Lord hath
filled the world, and the ear of hearing 11 heareth all things. But to those who of utter
folly, yea rather of blasphemy, suppose that ought they utter will escape the Divine Mind,
the Godlike Psalmist says, Understand, ye brutish among the people, and ye fools, when
will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, heareth He not? for how could it possibly happen
that He should not surely hear all things, who implanteth the sense of hearing into them
that were made by Him? See therefore in this too again that the Lord is by Nature God. For
the secret whispers of the Jews in the crowd He is not ignorant of; He receives them into
His Ears in God-befitting way, albeit from fear of the rulers they say nothing openly
concerning Him. And when on one occasion certain of those who had rushed together into the
temple, marvelled and were reasoning (as is like) or gently saying one to another, How
knoweth This Man letters not having learned? needs does He again shew Himself Equal to God
the Father Who learneth nothing at all, but hath the knowledge of all things by Nature and
without learning, because He surpasseth all understanding and soareth above all wisdom
that is in things that are. It was then possible for Him from other things too, to shew
and to assure His hearers, that whatsoever things are in the Father, these also are in
Him, by reason of Identity of Nature: which thing also He used to do in other things also,
from being able to do the same things and having like Operation unto all things, mounting
up unto Equal Dignity: for what things soever the Father doeth, these (He saith) doth the
Son too likewise, and again, For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, so
the Son too quickeneth whom He will.

But here it was (I suppose) seasonable and most suitable, to make a demonstration of the
most necessary points. For His discourse about wisdom and learning without letters was
made with those who had been considering these things. It behoved Him then to shew that
this existed in Him, just as in the Father. What then is the mode of proof? From His
having Equality of wisdom with Him, even though according to true and wise reasoning, He
most surely is Himself Wisdom and of God the Father, to Whom in all things like, He says
He teaches the same things with Him, without any distinction. For either on account of the
exact likeness of His doctrine to that of the Father, does He say that it is the Father's,
or because He is Himself the Wisdom of the Father, through Which He speaketh and ordereth
all things, does He say that the doctrine too is His: yet something else besides doth He
dispense, contributing not slightly to the salvation of His pupils. For since they seeing
a Man, on account of the flesh which was of earth received not the word as being of God,
and therefore seemed to be sick of a plausible unbelief, profitably doth He attribute the
teaching to God the Father, yet saying what was true, and from fear of their being
fighters against God, if they held out any longer against the decrees from above,
persuading them to receive His words.

But we must know that by His saying again that He was sent, He does not shew that He is
second in Dignity to the Father. For we must not imagine a mission befitting a servant,
even though because clad in servant's form He might rightly say even this of Himself. But
He was sent as Word from Mind, as the Sun's radiance from itself. For these I suppose are
processions from those things in which they are, from their appearing to issue forth, yet
exist they naturally and immovably in those things whence they are. For we ought not,
because word issues forth from mind, and radiance from the sun, therefore at all to
suppose that the things which produced are left of those which have gone forth of them,
but rather we shall see both those in these, and these again existing in the former. For
mind will never be word-less, nor yet word again without the mind fashioned therein.
Analogously to this, shall we conceive of the other also.

17 If any man do His Will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether
I am speaking of Myself. We ought uncritically and without all doubt to receive the words
of the Truth, and to believe that a thing once said, cannot be otherwise than as it was
declared to be. But He permits not His saying to be without proof, on account of the
unbelievers, but introduces a most evident and exceeding clear solution, tempering with
much skill the fashion of His words. And what the skill is, what the order of the economy,
we will again say. They were seeking to kill Him on account of the paralytic, him (I mean)
that was healed on the sabbath day. Gently then does He alike scare them from their
dreadful purpose against Him, and clearly does He convict those who are travailing with
their blood-thirsty purpose against Him, that they were choosing to fulfil their own lust
rather than the will of the Law-giver. For then (saith He) shall ye know perfectly of My
doctrine, that it is of God the Father, when ye shall choose to follow His Will rather
than your own. But the Will of the Law-giver and of God, is to abstain wholly from murder.
Then, then (He saith) shall ye, not holden beforehand by unjust hatred, nor thrust forth
in brutish guise to no seasonable anger, know clearly, whether the word of My teaching is
of God, or whether I am speaking of Myself.

Having therefore interwoven reproof with profit, He with justice accuses them, for that
they unreasonably mock at what He teaches, though God the Father consenteth and co-
willeth, or what also is true, co-teacheth and co-interpreteth. But He puts Of Myself,
for, Privately and wholly severed from being after the Co-Will and Purpose of the Father.
And I do not suppose any person of sound mind will think that He accuses His own words of
being spurious, but says that they will never be otherwise than in accordance with the
Will of God the Father. For He speaks by His own Word and Wisdom, His Own Offspring; but
That speaks not at all diversely from Himself, for how could It? 18 He that speaketh of
himself seeketh his own glory. He giveth this evident proof that He doth not labour for
His Own glory by His teaching, that He does not use any strange words and foreign to the
law (for this were to speak of Himself), but that He is exhorting them rather to be
obedient to the former oracles, while He removes only the unprofitable and gross shadow of
the letter, and transforms it persuasively unto the spiritual sense, which already lay hid
in types. What then He says in the Gospel according unto Matthew, I came not to destroy
the Law, but to fulfil; this again He indirectly intimates here. For the Gospel polity
hath but the transformation of the letter into the truth, and having transfashioned the
Mosaic type unto what is more fitting, hath the knowledge of the worship in spirit. Christ
therefore speaketh and not of Himself, that is, nothing diverse from the things already
foretold. For He doth not put away Moses, nor doth He teach us to reject the instruction
of the law, but over what had been shadowed out in type, as it were some brighter tint to
overlay the Truth. Very skilfully acquiring the good will of the Jews, does He offer the
honour and glory to God the Father.

For since the Jews knowing not the Word that had appeared from God the Father, were
supposing that the Law had been given by the Father only, with reason did He affirm that
He was glorified by the keeping of the Law, and endured the contrary if it were not kept
as it ought. But even though the Son is partaker of the glory of the Father, and through
Him had God the Father spoken to Moses, He yet assents to their opinions economically. But
in that He speaks nothing of Himself that does not agree with the law, He confesses that
not surely His own glory is it that He is zealous to build up, but that due to the Law.
Besides this, this too must be observed. For indirectly and darkly, He finds fault with
the Jews who are falling into those very things which they ignorantly blame, and are
accustomed to snatch at glory for themselves rather than God the Lord of all: and how, I
will tell. For they falling away from the commandments of the law, were borne each to what
liketh him, teaching, as it is written, for doctrines the commandments of men. For this
again well does Christ convict them as transgressors, and as sinning against the very Law-
giver, in that they persuaded their hearers not to live after His ordinances, but rather
to give heed to their doctrines. Therefore, albeit Christ says still indefinitely and
absolutely, He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, He is reproving the disease
of the madness of the Pharisees, in that through their chusing to speak rather their own
words, they are stealing the glory of the Lawgiver, and transferring to themselves the
things due to God, they thence shun not at length to seek to kill Him. On which account
specially convicts He them of transgressing, excusing themselves duly under the pretence
thatthey were zealous to keep the law, and thereby honour God the Father.

But he that seeketh (saith He) His Glory That sent Him, This one is true, and no
unrighteousness is in Him. As he who doth not seek rather the honour of God but his own,
is not true, but most exceedingly unjust: for he is not true, seeing he slandereth the
Law, and bringeth in his own will in its place; most unjust too, in that he thrusteth
aside the righteous judgment of the Lawgiver, and putteth his own above his Lord's.
Righteous then and true is Christ, obnoxious to none of the aforesaid charges. 19 Hath not
Moses given you the law, and no one of you keepeth the law? why are ye seeking to kill Me?
By many devices cometh about the discourse of the Saviour to one aim. For having in the
preceding, indirectly blamed (as was meet) the Pharisees who supposed that they ought not
to obey the commands from above, but to introduce their own opinions, and were zealous
rather to gain honour from those under them, and did not offer it to the Lord of all, but
diverted it to their own persons, that thence they were daring to transgress more
freely:----He again, in other and severest wise, prepares for them open at length and
unveiled reproof. For He being condemned for breach of the sabbath, and enduring the most
unjust accusation of lawlessness for this, convicted them not of individually
transgressing the law, but that the whole nation of the Jews had made the law of Moses of
no account. For tell Me (He saith) ye who condemn the man who is zealous to shew mercy on
the sabbath day, who have passed foullest censure upon those who do well, and freely
condemn the compassionate, hath not the commandment not to murder been delivered you by
Moses, whom ye admire? did ye not hear him say, The innocent and righteous slay thou not?
why then do ye grieve even your own Moses, by so readily transgressing the Law that was
appointed through him? An argument and clear proof of this, is that ye persecute Me who
have done no wrong, and are unjustly eager to slay Him who can never be accused of that
whereby He should suffer this.

Very pointed then is the Saviour's discourse and most severely herein does He attack the
mad folly of the Jews, and shew that they who fall as it were with unbridled course unto
condemning Him for His transgression of the sabbath, shew themselves transgressors, and
chusers of murder, and for this cause alone fall into the worst of all sins. He all but
cries aloud, The paralytic who had fallen into a bitter and incurable complaint, and who
was spent with weakness at length intolerable, I have healed on the sabbath day: but for
My well-doing, I am condemned as though I had been taken in the worst of crimes, and for
this ye determined murder against Me. What manner of punishment then (He says) shall be
devised for you commensurate with such monstrous deeds? for lo, yourselves too are
transgressing the law; but the mode of your transgressions, is not of like nature with the
charges against Me. For not as well-doers, like Me, are ye persuaded to do this, but with
a view to murder, which is worse than all transgression. How then is Moses with you in
these things, on whose account I, though a Preserver, am condemned? did not he appoint you
the law concerning this? do not ye again, while trampling on My Word, ignore its
transgression, by devising murder unjustly? Such things then might Christ well say to the
ungodly Pharisees. But He abstracts the Law for the present from His Own Person, although
He is Himself the Lawgiver, and attributes it as it were to the Father Alone, by Him
specially shaming into silence the shameless Jews, among whom He was considered greater
than He. For, as we have often said, they did not yet acknowledge that He is God by
Nature, nor did they yet know the deep mystery of the economy with Flesh, but admired
rather the glory of Moses.

20, 21 The people answered, Thou hast a devil; who is seeking to kill thee? Jesus answered
and said unto them They feel the charges, and hit by the bitter words thence proceeding,
they betake themselves to denial, not actually repudiating their murderous design, but
only with all diligence putting from them the appearance of breaking the Law, the boast of
the Pharisees in appearance only. Therefore was Christ wont to call them whited sepulchres
also, outwardly clad in the beauty of the ingenuity of art, but within full of the
uncleanness of the dead. But I suppose that they say these things to take away fear as to
His expecting to suffer anything, not truly giving Him an assurance that He will not
suffer, but drawing Him forth unto a hazardous confidence, and thinking to persuade Him
not to be zealous to be hid from them. For then it would be no hard matter to plot against
Him, at least as they supposed. For they ignorantly deemed, not knowing Him That was
persecuted, that He would be obnoxious to their perverseness, even though He willed not to
suffer, and would be caught, like one of those who knew not the thought that lay hid in
their minds. The fruit then of their stubbornness is their denial, and another kind of
blasphemy against Christ. For by what things they endeavour to repel His words, as untrue,
they condemn Him as a Liar, adding iniquity to their iniquity, as it is written.

One work I did, and do ye all marvel? We will read the verse, as a question, with a comma,
and a full stop. But we will not be ignorant of the subtle meaning of the word, replete
with a most wise economy. For observe how on relating to the Jews His Loving-kindness to
the impotent man, He does not say unguardedly, I have healed the man on the sabbath day,
and do ye therefore marvel? but more cautiously and far more heedfully, He says, One work
I did, soothing the unseasonable anger of the multitude; for it was not unlikely, that
they, cut by the transgression against the sabbath, would even now attempt to stone Jesus.
For indiscreet of counsel, according to the Greek poets, and prone to anger is ever the
multitude, both applying gentlest accord to whatsoever it is minded to, and easily excited
like a bull unto intolerable daring, it is caught more apt than it ought in daring
undertakings to dreadful ends. Having therefore put away all boast for their profit's
sake, He makes use of the gentlest words and with exceeding moderation He says, One work I
did, and do ye all marvel? On account of this one work (He says) although it was wrought
for the salvation and life of the prostrate, do ye condemn the mighty Worker thereof, as
though for offences truly heinous, and looking only to the honour of the Sabbath, accord
not wonder to the miracle? (for this indeed would have been more fitting) but because the
commandment of the law has been broken according to your foolish imagination, for no
slight or worthless reasons, but for the salvation and life of a man, ye are unreasonably
angry, when ye ought rather to praise Him Who is clad with so great and God-befitting
power. Untutored then by these things also are the people of the Jews proved to be,
expending undue astonishment upon the man that was healed, and not rather offering it to
Christ Who miraculously preserveth.

But we must know, that He, in addressing them of Israel and saying, One work I did, and do
ye all marvel? again indirectly reproves and makes known something of this kind. For on
account of this one (according to you) offence of Mine (He says) ye marvel at My purpose,
as though I were bold to thrust aside the Lawgiver: then how deem ye that God feels
towards you, who not once merely offend against the Law, but make nothing of transgressing
it, in matters for which ye judge others? 22 Therefore hath Moses given you circumcision
(not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers) and ye on the sabbath-day circumcise a
man. Of deep meaning is the word, and hard to be reached the purpose of the text, but it
will be manifest through the grace of Him That illuminateth. Defeating then by many words
the uninstructedness of the Jews, and manifoldly teaching them that they ought not to go
off to unseasonable wrath on account of the breach of the sabbath, by reason the Son of
man is Lord of the Sabbath day: but having at length attained no good effect by reason of
the ill-counsel of the hearers, He passes on to another mode of economy, and endeavours to
shew clearly that the hierophant Moses himself, the minister of the Law, brake the Law of
the sabbath on account of the circumcision, which had extended from the custom of the
fathers even unto his own times, that he too might with reason be shewn to be an observer
of the custom of the fathers, and since God works on the sabbath, therefore He revealing
Himself too as a worker holds that it is in no wise a transgression of the sabbath, by
reason of His being ever like minded with the Father. Wherefore He also said, My Father
worketh hitherto and I work. In order then (He saith) that ye, beholding Me working on the
sabbath day, may not marvel as at some strange and most monstrous thing, Moses hath given
you circumcision on the sabbath, and he was beforehand in breaking the Law respecting it.
And why?

He did not think he should be doing right, in dishonouring the Law given to the Fathers,
and their custom, on account of the sabbath day. Therefore a man is circumcised on the
sabbath day too. But if Moses considered that he ought to honour the custom of the
fathers, and made that superior to the honour of the sabbath, why are ye vainly troubled
at Me, and marvel at Me, as though I were one of those wont heedlessly to transgress the
Law, out of contempt for the Law? albeit (He says) I work equally with the Father, and
ever agree with Him in every purpose: and since He works on the Sabbath day, well do I
refuse to be idle thereon. He says that Moses gave them, circumcision, although it was not
of him according to what has been just said, but of the fathers, because the ordinance of
circumcision was given to the fathers, but its rites were more definitely and clearly
ordered by Moses. For our forefather Abraham was circumcised, but not on the eighth day,
nor was a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons offered for him, in accordance with
the rites of Moses.

Chapter VI. A dissertation upon the rest of the Sabbath, manifoldly shewing of what it is
significant.

23 If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision that the law of Moses should not be
broken, are ye angry at Me, because I made a whole man well on the sabbath day? The verse
is unintelligible to the many and not very clear as to its subdivisions; we will therefore
speak of that first. We will therefore read it bit by bit, changing the structure of the
verse; for thus you will clearly understand the meaning. If then (He says) a man on the
sabbath day receive circumcision, are ye angry at Me, that the law of Moses should not be
broken, because I made a whole man well on the sabbath day? For a man does not receive
circumcision on the sabbath day, that the Law of Moses be not broken: for it is broken
when the sabbath is made void by circumcision. For as we taught before, yea rather as the
Saviour Himself said, circumcision is not of Moses but of the fathers. So that by reason
of the circumcision from the fathers, the Law of Moses is broken, I mean that respecting
the sabbath. Therefore we must connect the words, that the Law of Moses should not be
broken, to our Saviour's words: for He says, are ye angry at Me, that the Law of Moses
should not be broken, because I made a whole man well on the sabbath day? The case of the
sub-division then has been now herein settled, we must go to the interpretation of the
things signified too, even though they are exceedingly hard to understand. Circumcision,
then (He says) is a way of taking care for a man, and it surpasses the ordinance itself of
the sabbath.

For it was of necessity that the suffering should be made whole. What then is the
hindrance, or how will the ordinance of the sabbath reasonably stand in the way of healing
the whole body, since it permits already without blame its breach by a partial and slight
healing? for a man is circumcised and healed of the wound without blame on the Sabbath
day. Vainly then (He says) are ye indignant, to the Worker of the better things objecting
the transgression of the Law, when the law is not grieved at being put aside by Moses for
a petty circumcision. By these things is enwoven an argument, persuading them to agree
that they ought not vainly to be annoyed, since Moses had already been a type thereof,
whom they foolishly thought they ought to take the part of, and making no account of his
law, were being hurried off to the duty of committing murder.

24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. The Law (He says)
which ye are so zealous to take the part of, and for the sake of which ye were kindled
even unto fierce wrath, openly cries aloud, Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, for
the judgment is God's. Ye then who condemn Me as a transgressor on account of the sabbath,
and decide that it is most fitting to be angry at this, do ye care for the honour of the
Law, take shame at the message, Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous
judgment. For if ye put Moses forth from transgression, and rightly consider that he has
no portion of condemnation for this, albeit he breaketh the ordinance of the sabbath on
account of circumcision [which is] of the fathers, do ye free from blame the Son too Who
ever agreeth with the mind of the Father, and approveth His will, and whatsoever things He
doeth, these likewise is He too wont to do. But if ye condemn the Son only, and do not
condemn Moses, although he is involved (He saith) in equal blame to that wherein ye
suppose that I too am involved on account of the sabbath, how will ye not be found to be
trampling on the Divine Law, and be taken insulting the decrees from above, out of respect
to some corrupting the command to judge righteousness, and rendering superior to the
Divine commands him to whom ye transgressing pay reverence from respect of persons?

Let the wise hearer observe again the wondrous skill of our Saviour Christ. When accused
of the breach of one Law, He convicts them as transgressors by very many arguments, all
but uttering the Gospel words. And why lookest thou at the mote that is in thy brother's
eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? An evil thing then is it to
condemn others. For wherein a man judgeth another, he condemneth himself, as it is
written. Wherefore by the Saviour too Himself was it said, Judge not and ye shall not be
judged, condemn not and ye shall not be condemned. And this we say in respect of
ourselves: for Christ will never become a transgressor by changing His own Laws to
whatsoever He will, and overlaying with the fair beauty of truth the shadows of the Law:
that at length, the things enjoined in a more carnal sense to them of old, may be changed
into a spiritual interpretation.

But since our discourse, which was upon the mention of the sabbath, hath flowed into that
of the circumcision, I think that not less profit than is due will accrue to the true
searcher after wisdom, through his clearly beholding, what the seventh day rest means,
what again is signified by the circumcision on the eighth day, and by his learning in
addition, why circumcision is received on the sabbath itself, not enduring to keep the
legal-rest: rightly examining each point, as well as I can, I will endeavour to make it
clear. The first consideration will be that of the seventh day, or sabbath, and its rest.
For so will the enquiry into what follows be most convenient. Therefore let us enquire
into the first appointed law on this subject, how and in what manner it arose. For when
God brought Israel out of the bondage in Egypt unto their original and ancient freedom, by
the hand of the all-wise Moses, and having miraculously brought them through the midst of
the sea, with foot somehow dry and unwetted, commanded them to hasten on unto the land of
promise, at length, accustoming them of necessity to purify themselves beforehand and
cleanse themselves, He called them to an assembly in mount Sinai: and having descended
upon it in the likeness of fire, He gave them decrees unto salvation, saying, I am the
LORD thy God, Which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods but Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any image nor any
likeness that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water
under the earth, thou shalt not worship them nor serve them, for I am the LORD thy God, a
jealous God. For it was fitting, it was fitting thence to commence the ordinance of what
was profitable, and first to fore-initiate with the doctrines of Divine knowledge, them
who had once given themselves to the service and obedience of God. For knowledge of God is
the root of all virtue, and the foundation of piety is faith.

Having therefore revealed Himself, and as it were made Himself manifest by saying, I am
the LORD thy God, and having first wrought in them faith by knowledge, and having wholly
interdicted the making of an image and the worship of falsely-called gods, He shews that
their transgression will not be unpunished, and sets before them the punishment of turning
aside, crying, Thou shalt not take the Name of the LORD thy God in vain, that is, thou
shalt not put about a vain idol the Divine and most dread Name: for the LORD (He says)
will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain. Having then said that he shall
be guilty of no slight transgression, who shall please to worship another, and to enrol
himself under a false god, and having threatened them accordingly, as people newly brought
to the faith and having a feebler understanding, He adds in order, and as it were
establishes a second law, saying, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy: six days shalt
thou labour and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God,
in it thou shalt not do any work. Then profitably shewing Whom they will imitate in so
doing, He says, For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in
them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the seventh day and
hallowed it.

What then (will a man say) did the ordinance of the Sabbath purport? Or why, after the
threatening against transgressions was a second and similar Law straightway introduced? To
this we say, that it was right not only to threaten trangressors that they should undergo
dreadful sufferings, nor by fear alone to stablish Israel unto piety (for the service of
fear is of a more slavish sort) but to shew of what they will be partakers and to what end
they will come, who are firmly fixed in love to Him. He defines therefore, and gives them
as in type the promise of the future good things. For the law hath a shadow of the good
things to come, as it is written, and its form is shewn to be an exercise preparatory to
the truth. For He commands them to rest on the last day of the week, that is, the sabbath,
and to cease from all work, and give it over, and to practise rest thereon, signifying
thereby the rest and enjoyment that should be to the saints at the completion of ages,
when they having ended their life in the world, and having cleansed away the sweat of
their good works, they who are in Christ shall live the life without toil and free from
all weariness, according to that which is spoken concerning them by the mouth of the
prophet: for they shall forget their former tribulation, and it shall not come into their
heart, but everlasting joy shall be upon their head, for upon their head praise, and joy
shall take hold on them, sorrow and grief and sighing are fled away. They too imitating
the Creator who ceased and all but rested from the toils of creation, will cease from
their labours in this life, attaining unto the delight to be given by Christ at the end of
ages. And to this end I think that the appointed rest on the sabbath tends.

But note how the Law-giver says negatively, Thou shalt not worship any other gods, but on
giving the kindred commandment about the sabbath which follows it, He says, Remember, and
why? Because the time for not worshipping other gods was now gone by (for therefore He
immediately commanded them to be diligent about this) but by means of memory it was
possible to behold things to come, and to see aforehand in thought what was already limned
in types. We must moreover notice this too. For when He had well enforced our position
with regard to our faith, He straightway adds the memorial of the promise at the end of
ages 12, and then ordains the remaining laws, Honour thy father and thy mother, thou shalt
not kill, and so on: that we may not think we are justified by works, nor look for the
ungrudged bounteousness of God as the fruit of our own toils, but that we shall have it of
faith. Therefore before the laws of godly conversation, grace hath straightway entered in
as the next neighbour to our faith of the good things in hope.

The sabbath rest then signifies the life of the saints in rest and holiness, when they,
having at length put off all that is troublous, and ceased from every toil, shall delight
in the good things from God. And verily the blessed Paul, when he discoursed to us of
these things, and most excellently essayed to enquire into the mode of the rest of the
people, saith thus, And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to
them that believed not? And we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. For
since certain were supposing that that was the land of rest, whereinto they came that came
forth out of Egypt, albeit that is taken as a type of the one which shall be given to the
saints by Christ, which David called the land of the living, the most wise Paul endeavours
to shew, that that which was then given for an inheritance to the children of Israel by
the command of Joshua was a type of that which is looked for. For that these things are
taken as a type of the truth, he diligently proves, bringing an argument demonstrative of
what has been said. For he saith thus, Seeing therefore it remaineth that some enter
therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, He
again limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To-day, after so long a time:

as it is foresaid To-day if ye will hear His Voice, harden not your hearts, as in the
provocation; for if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of
another day. Seest thou how diligently he overthrew the apparent objection? For one
striving with Jewish arguments might straightway have said, "What then art thou saying
most excellent Sir? hath not Joshua brought the people into the land of promise? did they
not rest and keep sabbath in it? "yea. (he saith) "but in type and imitation of the true.
For if in these things only the grace of God and the measure of His Promise is marked out,
and in them have been fulfilled to Israel their hopes, and the letter of the law signifies
nothing else besides, how, as though Joshua had not given them rest, is again another
period of rest marked out by blessed David although he was so long after? Wisely then and
very skilfully does he, after having shewn that the historical incidents are a type and
image of spiritual things, reveal the still concealed and hidden interpretation of the
sabbath, adding. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God; for he that is
entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His. How
then will it not be hence at length clearly confessed, that the mind of the saints knows
that the resting from toils, i.

e., those of our labours, is the sabbath-keeping, when the bright band of the saints shall
delight in their good deeds before wrought in this life, after the likeness of the Creator
of all things, Who rested and rejoiced on the seventh day, as Wisdom saith in the book of
Proverbs, I was she in Whom He delighted: daily rejoiced I before Him at every-time, when
He was rejoicing on having completed the earth, and was rejoicing in the sons of men?
Therefore (for I will return again to the original subject, and will recapitulate the bent
of the whole discourse), the rest of the sabbath denotes the toilless life of the saints.
For without toil shall all good things be given at that time to the saints by God, nor
shall we then work sin the foundation of ills, because it shall perish root and branch
from us, together with him who was wont to sow it in us, according as it is said, No lion
shall be there, nor shall ought of evil beasts go up thereon, but a pure way shall be
there, and it shall be called, An holy way. Yea, and the mind of the saints will retain
all good things without toil. Therefore he too who gathered sticks on the sabbath day died
by stoning, as having wronged the truth in the type.

For after having ceased, and arrived at that rest, we shall never go forth of that habit
both admirable and illustrious in virtues, as they did from their tent, nor shall we any
more collect sin, which is the food and mother of fire, as did that man the wood, through
his exceeding senselessness, not understanding the types which point to the truth.
Therefore also with senseless stones, as himself taken in much senselessness, was he
stoned by the avengers, having the character of his manners inscribed in his punishment.
That we shall not then commit any abominable sin, is therefore manifest, nor yet shall we
by sweat attain what is profitable; and this again we shall see shewn as it were darkly in
the books of Moses. For God showered down the Manna like dew upon the sons of Israel in
the wilderness, and gave them angels' bread, as it is written, and then He appointed a law
too respecting it by the all wise Moses. For thus did- he make proclamation, Eat to-day:
for to-day is a sabbath unto the Lord, ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye
shall gather, but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. For
he hints that before the completion of the ages it is convenient that we collect with toil
that which profiteth and nourisheth us unto everlasting life, as they traversing the wide
wilderness, gathered together from all quarters manna for their food;

but on the seventh, that is, in the final end, the time for collecting what is profitable
is gone by, and we shall delight ourselves in the things already provided, according as it
is said by the Psalmist, Thou shalt eat the fruit of thy toils. God the Lawgiver then, not
taking pleasure in the shadows, but looking beforehand to the very image of the things,
issued proclamation that we ought not to labour on the sabbath. But certain men having
despised the Law given them about this, and not shrinking from fool-hardily offending the
Lord of all, determined that they ought to go out to gather manna even on the sabbath, and
not in counsels only was their daring endeavour, but in very deed they accomplished what
seemed them good. The Law-giver therefore for this again finds fault with them, and says,
How long chuse ye not to keep My commandments and My law? See, for that the LORD gave you
this day for a Sabbath, therefore He hath given you on the sixth day the bread of two
days, abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.
Seest thou how He forming beforehand for us life free from all sweat and toil, in the
typical rest, enjoins them to do nothing at all on the sabbath? For He does not permit
them to. gather, and enjoins them besides, not to leave their house and go anywhither, nor
to go forth from their own place. And what again He wills us to learn by this, we will set
forth, bringing forward a kindred and similar command.

The blessed Prophet Jeremiah spake then to the Jews on this wise, Thus saith the LORD,
Keep your souls, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, and go not forth of the gates of
Jerusalem, neither carry forth burdens out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do
ye any work: hallow the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. And what thence? Urging
as aforesaid to a watchful habit, he bids us keep our own soul, for thus will oar duty of
hastening unto the hoped-for Sabbath-keeping be easily accomplished. But how many good
things shall be revealed to those who possess this, He beautifully makes known by the
introduction of the other things. For He does not suffer any to be laden with a burden,
since no one at that time will take up the heavy burden of sin. For it is the time of
holiness, when our old sin having departed to utter destruction, the soul of each is
renewed to a habit of virtue unwavering. Yea and He does not suffer them to go forth of
the gates of Jerusalem. For according to the true and orthodox doctrine the glorious choir
of the saints shall dwell securely in the heavenly Jerusalem, and shall not go forth of
the holy city, but rather shall be therein for ever, held fast by the Divine power so as
never to be able to run away from the good things once for all given them. For the gifts
and calling of God are without repentance, according to S.

Paul. But in saying again, Ye shall not go forth every man from his place, He seems to
imply this most clearly. For many in truth are the mansions with God the Father according
to the Saviour's word (and of this was the holy tabernacle in all glory fulfilling the
type, which had ten chambers 13) and to each shall be given according to his deserts and
proportionately to his good deeds, his abode. But they that are wholly in possession of
their tabernacles there, they shall dwell there for ever, and will never come to fall from
the things allotted to them by the Divine free gift. And a true witness hereof shall be
introduced by us. For the Prophet Isaiah having clearly stated these things, speaketh
thus, Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem, a wealthy city, tabernacles that shall not be shaken
nor shall be removed for ever: for in saying that the tabernacles in the wealthy city
shall not be shaken, he shews the immutability of the abode and habitation therein. Yea,
he says moreover, and Neither do ye any work thereon, but hallow ye the sabbath day. As we
have already often said, the time of rest and refreshment belongs to both, and it is
wholly kept holy as a feast to Christ.

Again that we ought to do no work on the sabbath day, but to rest as it were and cease
from every thing that inviteth to sweat and toil, we shall know from other sources also.
For He says in Exodus, Six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits
thereof, but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still. And in Leviticus, When
ye come into the land which I give you, the land which I give you shall keep a sabbath
unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy
vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof, but in the seventh year shall be a rest unto
the land, a sabbath to the LORD. For it is not the land which is insensible to toil that
He releases, nor yet to it doth He in reality give this law, but He brought it about to
those who possessed it, that they should not toil, through His giving a release to the
land. For in many ways did He point out our feast in Christ, in which they who have lived
in the Divine fear shall hasten unto the perfect and complete liberty which is in
holiness, and to the most wealthy grace of the Spirit. And this again we shall know from
the Mosaic commands themselves. For it runs thus, When thy brother, an Hebrew man or an
Hebrew woman, is sold unto thee, six years shall he serve thee, in the seventh year a
release. For we who were of old slaves to sin, and by taking pleasure in evil had in some
sort sold ourselves to the devil, being justified in Christ through faith, shall mount up
to the true and holy sabbath-keeping, clothed with the liberty which is through grace, and
glorified with the good things from God.

Chapter VII. A dissertation upon the circumcision on the eighth day, manifoldly shewing of
what it is significant.

Having now sufficiently (as I think) and according to the power of my understanding,
unfolded the purpose of the sabbath, we will transfer the labour of investigation to
circumcision which is akin thereto, resolving from all quarters to hunt out as befits,
what is of use. For it were most absurd and not free from the extremest ridicule, that one
should not gladly give all toil in exchange for the knowledge of these things. What then
was by it also typically expressed to them of old, we considering the subject spiritually
will set forth according to the measure of the gift of the God of all Who maketh dark
things manifest, and openeth to us hidden and invisible treasures. For they who have
already attained unto habit undefective, and have their understanding maturer, may both
conceive and utter things far superior to these, but WE will set before our hearers what
comes into our mind, though it seem to come far short of what is fitting, not sinning
against brotherly love by fear of seeming inferior to any, but rather knowing the
scripture, Give occasion to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser; teach a just man, and he
will receive yet more. The first law then respecting circumcision was ordained, when God
said to Abraham, THOU shalt keep My covenant and thy seed after thee in their,
generations; and this is My covenant, which I will covenant, between you and Me and thy
seed after thee in their generations:

every man child among you shall be circumcised, and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your
foreskin: and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt Me and you. And he that is eight
days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child. But when He had appointed the
law as to this, and had decreed that they should surely circumcise the flesh of their
foreskin, He shews that the transgression of the law will not be without harm, shewing
that it is the type of a most essential mystery: for He subjoins as follows, And My
covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant: and the uncircumcised man
child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised on the eighth day that soul shall be
cut off from his seed; he hath scattered My covenant. The Divine Paul then affirmed that
circumcision had been given to the patriarch as a sign and a seal of the faith which he
had in uncircumcision. For it was his aim (it seems) and zealous endeavour to shew that
the calling and righteousness which are through faith surpass and are elder than every
command of the law. For thus hardly did he shame them of Israel, and persuade them not to
esteem the righteousness of faith a transgression of the law, but rather a return to that
which was from the beginning and before all law;

yet is he, seasonably bringing round the force of his subject to what is immediately
profitable and of use for the present time, found to know of another kind of circumcision.
For wishing to unteach the Jews their delight in glorying in the flesh, he writes again,
For not he is a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward
in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. Does he
not hereby persuade them to change at length to other thoughts respecting this, and would
not have them look on circumcision, as merely the gift of the seal to our forefather of
the faith which he had being yet uncircumcised, but conceive of it as something greater
and spiritual?

We must then investigate and examine not remissly what the circumcision in the spirit is,
of what that which is accomplished in the flesh is a symbol, and why, not on any day
indifferently, as it might happen, but only on the eighth, man is circumcised. It is then
obvious to every man, that since our aim is intent to be united to God through Christ the
Mediator, therefore it surely befits those who mount up by faith to intimate nearness with
the all-holy Lord, to first purify and sanctify themselves in every way. We will take as a
most excellent image of this kind of thing, that which was spoken by God to the holy
Moses, Go down protest unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let
them wash their clothes and he ready against the third day; for the third day the LORD
will come down upon the mount Sinai. In that they were to sanctify themselves beforehand,
He would have them attend to fitness of habits; in that they were to wash their clothes,
He points to purity of the body itself. For the body is as it were the garment and array
of the soul.

Since then (for I will go up to the first and most necessary beginning of the subject)
they who are hastening to an intimate nearness to the holy God must surely first purify
themselves, according to what is said by Him, Holy shall ye be, for I am holy, He ordained
a symbol of sanctification to them of old through the circumcision in the flesh, and how,
we will say. On examining into the nature of things among us, we shall find pleasure
taking the lead of all sin: and some hot lust ever preceding in its working, invites us to
transgression, and first taking captive the prudence of the understanding, thus at length
persuades us to come by a most smooth way unto the attainment of the things desired. And
the disciple of Christ shews that what we have said on these matters is true, for thus
proclaims he, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be
tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man, but every man is tempted, when he is drawn
away of his own lust, and enticed. Then lust when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin,
and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Seest thou then how in lusts toward
anything the birth of evil is first formed, and the seed of sin is first conceived in
forbidden pleasure?

God the Lawgiver then commands the circumcising steel to be applied to that part of the
body, wherein and whence is the birth of pleasures, that thou mayest learn, as it were
darkly, that it is impossible for us ever to appear pure, unless, by receiving the most
sharp working of the Divine Word in our heart, and admitting into our mind the sword of
the Spirit, we drive away lusts after all the basest things, never doing after our own
wills, even though they pretend to have the sweetest enjoyment, but persuaded only to love
and do the Will of God. Seeing that the truer circumcision brings unto us such power, well
may it be said to those who are accustomed to glory in the flesh only, Circumcise
yourselves to God, and circumcise the hardness of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants
of Jerusalem. For he that is circumcised in the flesh, is circumcised to the flesh only,
but he that hath received the circumcision in the Spirit, through faith to Christward, is
circumcised to God only and truly.

But we receive the circumcision in the Spirit which bringeth us up to an intimate nearness
to God, on the eighth day, that is the day of the resurrection of the Saviour, taking this
as a sign that the circumcision of the Spirit is the giver of Life, and agreeing in some
sort through the thing itself, that we shall live with Christ, according to what is said
by Paul, For ye died, and your life hath been hidden with Christ in God: when Christ shall
appear, your life, then shall YE also appear with Him in glory. For will not one say (and
that with truth) that one dies to the world, by refusing the world's pleasures for God's
sake? Such an one did the Divine Paul too manifest himself to us, saying, God forbid that
I should glory, save in the Cross of Christ, by Whom the world hath been crucified unto
me, and I unto the world: for made partakers of Him through the Spirit, which circumciseth
without hands all. the impurity that is in us, we become dead to the world, and live a
most excellent life to God. Therefore circumcision is on the eighth day by reason of the
resurrection of Christ, and not before the eighth; for not before the Resurrection was the
gift of the Spirit, but after it, or at the very time of the resurrection, when He
breathed on His disciples also, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. To the Jews then the
circumcision by the knife was more fitting, for they were yet slaves and under the
avenging law (and the iron is the symbol of punishment), but to us as free and spiritual
belongs the purification through the Spirit, banishing all pollution from our souls, and
bringing in perfection in the brightness of godliness through faith.

For that through the truer and spiritual circumcision, is accomplished the boast of
perfection in godliness, we shall perceive, by considering what is written respecting the
Patriarch Abraham. It is written then of our forefather Abraham, that his years were
ninety and nine in number, and then did God serviceably ordain him circumcision, making
this too as it were an evident sign, that circumcision is as it were a vestibule and
approach to perfection in virtue, or rather clearly signifying that no one will ever
arrive at this, who has not the purification which is shadowed forth by circumcision. For
the number 100 is the symbol of perfection. Circumcision then precedes perfection. For it
when it precedes easily brings us to that. But not to these things are limited the
benefits of circumcision, I mean of circumcision in the Spirit, but we shall find that it
too belongs to those only who are free in Christ. But wholly free (I think) in Christ, is
the man who hath shaken off the bondage of the devil and the yoke of sin, and hath broken
asunder their bonds, as it is written, and hath bound upon him the glorious and
untyrannical boast of righteousness, I mean the righteousness which is in faith of Christ.

But that we shall find circumcision on the eighth day befitting the free, but by no means
those who are slaves, we on traversing the holy and Divine Scripture, shall in nowise
doubt. Ishmael then, the son born to the patriarch of the handmaid Hagar, was circumcised,
but not on the eighth day, but rather in his thirteenth year: for so is it written, that
Abraham circumcised Ishmael his son at thirteen years old, in order that the Divine word
may shew us that the son of Jerusalem which is in bondage, that is Israel, hath fallen
both from the eighth and from the twelfth. For it falleth from the eighth, as not choosing
to receive the saving preaching of the Resurrection, which took place on the eighth day,
that is the Gospel of Christ, whereby there is no doubt that we aided unto faith, are
circumcised in spirit. But it falleth again from the twelfth too, as it were in figure
thrusting away by their unbelief the holy choir of the Apostles, and desiring to abide
entirely without taste and experience of their doctrine. Herein then is the servant, but
Isaac the free son of the free is circumcised on the eighth day. For the free children of
the free, I mean Jerusalem which is above, are enriched receiving the eighth, that is the
Resurrection of Christ, and the circumcision in spirit which freeth them from all sin, and
releaseth them from death, because from sin too, whence and on account whereof is death,
and transbringeth them unto the Life of Christ.

But that in addition to what we have already said, both undoing of death and the overthrow
of corruption, are found through the circumcision in the spirit, we shall easily see, by
studying the book called Exodus. For the blessed Moses was sent by divine command to
Pharaoh the tyrant of the Egyptians, to tell him that it behoved him to let Israel go from
that great bondage. And indeed he was setting out, to meet with those things we spoke of,
but it came to pass (it says) by the way in the inn, that the angel met him and sought to
kill him: and Zipporah took a sharp stone and circumcised the foreskin of her son, and
said, The blood of the circumcision of my son hath stayed, and he departed from him,
because she said, The blood of the circumcision of my son hath stayed. Here listen to me
carefully. The so-called angel seeks to lay hands upon and to slay Moses, but hardly
withdraws from him and departs, shamed by the circumcision of the child, which Zipporah
performing with a stone, says that she has accomplished what is necessary. For scaring
away the destroyer of Moses, she cries out, The blood of the circumcision of my son hath
stayed.

But unless some mystical meaning were hidden in these words, what mind (tell me) would be
assured, that the hierophant Moses was saved by the circumcision of his son, and that the
destroyer making an onset like a wild beast desisted from his onslaught at the appearance
of blood, and drew back and turned away? Then (for I will come to this point first) the
benefit or glory of his own circumcision did not suffice the blessed Moses unto salvation.
For I think I ought rather to speak thus. The might of the circumcision which is after the
law, will not overthrow death which cometh indifferently to every one, evil and good. But
the circumcision in the Spirit of the new people, that is, of those who have believed in
Christ, most excellently performed by Zipporah, that is the Church, both scares it against
its will, and puts it to flight when raging.

How then, may some one with great reason say, is Israel too preserved in the spiritual
circumcision of the new people, though he hath no share of it? To this we say, that as far
as concerns Israel's not choosing to receive the Resurrection of our Saviour Christ, death
would have reigned even for ever; but since they which believed received it, the grace of
the Resurrection on their accounts passed into the whole nature, extended in some sort to
the whole through the circumcision in the Spirit, even though a considerable difference of
resurrection be seen in the one and the other. For they who thrust from them belief in
Christ, and by their unbelief insult the Giver of life, will gain power from the
Resurrection merely to live again (for they will live again unto doom, not having loved
Christ who justifieth), but they who are admirers of the Resurrection of the Saviour, and
truekeepers of the commandments, shall go forth of that land wherein they are, unto the
resurrection of life, as it is written. The people then which is circumcised in spirit
will transmit his own good even unto the unbelieving. For his of right is the grace of the
Resurrection, but he will transmit it unto the rest also, God desiring of His skill to
preserve the whole nature.

For as Paul saith, as WE in times past disbelieved the mercy of Israel, that through their
obedience 15 we may gain the grace through Christ, so they too have now disbelieved our
mercy that they too again may obtain mercy, our Saviour Christ transmitting to them also
through our faith, the benefit of the Resurrection. For the things which are due to them
that believe, are more suitably given to the whole nature. Therefore the Divine Apostle
Paul also revealing to us the mystery concerning the Resurrection that shall be says that
Christ will rise the First fruits, for verily He also was first raised from the dead, but
afterwards (he says) that they are Christ's at His coming. For he says that they who were
intimately connected with Him by faith must be raised before all the rest, shewing that
the resurrection is strictly and properly due to them above all, even though it have
reached the whole nature, God being pleased of His Goodness (that is) and Loving-kindness
wholly to abolish death.

But observe how not with iron does Zipporah circumcise the child (for the iron is an
avenger, and beseems them that are under the law which punisheth) but with a stone, as it
is written, understood as a type of Christ. For the indestructibility and stability in all
respects of the Nature of the Only-Begotten is hereby signified. Wherefore God the Father
in the holy Prophets called Christ an adamant too, saying, Behold, I am setting an adamant
in the midst of My people Israel. The adamant signifies to us as in a figure, that the
Divine and Ineffable Nature of the Word can never yield to those which oppose it. Thus the
Divine Joshua too after Moses' leadership and death being called to the command, purified
the children of Israel with a Divinely appointed stone, and since he was to withstand the
hand of the enemy, right well was he commanded to arm them first in some sort by
circumcision, knowing that no otherwise would they who were on the very verge of fighting
be above falling and superior to death.

And thus it is written concerning him, And the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee knives of
rock, of the sharp rock, and sit down, circumcise the children of Israel. And Joshua made
him knives of flints, and circumcised the children of Israel. For herein the name rock
signifies to us as it were the fixed and indestructible Word of God, the expression sharp
points out the power of subtilely penetrating into things, and its keenest energy, since
Paul too, who was nourished up in the holy and Divine writings, calls the Divine Word
quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, and says that it pierces even to
the parting of soul and spirit. But the Word so subtle and piercing entering our hearts
through His own Spirit frees them from all uncleanness, and circumcising in an expressible
manner the things in respect whereof we are full of the deepest abominations, it renders
us both holy and undefiled. For see herein most translucent the image of the truth. For
Jesus is he who circumciseth, and they who undergo it of him, are every fresh young child,
as it is written, who this day knoweth not good or evil. For they who came forth out of
Egypt had the Divine wrath as the wages of their unbelief, and manifold punishment
overtook them in the desert, it having been with reason determined by the all-holy God
that He would not bring them into the land which He sware to their fathers.

But they who came after them being free from the charges of unbelief, fulfilled the type
of the new people, so as even to receive the circumcision in the spirit through Christ,
the old and first people, that is, Israel, having gone to perdition, as we have just said.
Nevertheless the noble and new people are circumcised, under the command of Joshua, the
other side Jordan, as it is written. For the considerations that spring from the truth are
thus; we shall never receive the circumcision through the Spirit in the heart, as long as
we have not yet been brought over the mystic Jordan, but are still on yon side of the holy
waters. But when all the people were circumcised by command of Joshua, straightway the
Lawgiver makes known the utility of the thing, and says to the holy Joshua, This day have
I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherein then shall we grant that Israel
received benefit from circumcision or what reproach do we say was rolled away? Their
bondage, their exposure from weakness to be tyrannized over, and yet more their hard
labours, in clay and brick. Seest thou from how great evils the might of the circumcision
in spirit delivers? For it delivers the soul of man out of the hand of the devil, renders
it free and let go from the sin which tyrannizes in us, and maketh it superior to all the
arrogance of wicked devils.

Yea it frees from both clay and brick, for no longer does it suffer one denied with the
pleasures of the flesh, nor that he be intermingled with the toils of earth, but frees
both from death and corruption: nor are these all the benefits which arise from
circumcision, but it also renders us partakers of the Divine Nature through the
participation of our Saviour Christ. For the compiler of the book adds to what has been
said, And the children of Israel kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month and
did eat of the corn of the land bread unleavened and new. For no otherwise may one partake
of the Very Lamb That taketh away the sin of the world, nor yet find the unleavened and
new food of the Gospel preachings, unless one have first passed the mystic Jordan,
received the circumcision from the Living Word, and rubbed off after some sort, as it were
a spot on the soul, the reproach of Egypt, in the manner we have just expounded.

For that God loatheth, as fall of reproach and all uncleanness, him that is not yet
circumcised, not as holding in abomination the flesh which He disdained not to create, but
[as hating] him that is yet (so to say) in full vigour and complete, as respects pleasures
in evil, by reason of his having lost nothing, we shall know when we find Him saying to
holy Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover: There shall no stranger eat
thereof but every man's servant that is bought for money, thou shall circumcise him, and
then shall he eat thereof. For He wholly excludes the stranger, thereby signifying him who
is not yet joined to Christ through faith: but him that is in bondage to sin, and is in
some sort sold to the devil, He very seasonably commands to be first circumcised, and
purified, and then to taste the most holy Flesh. For we being pure purely shall we partake
of Christ, according to that which is orderly proclaimed in our churches, Holy things to
the holy. For in truth it were just and meet, since our Saviour Christ died for us, and
cleansed us not with the purifications of the Law but with His Own Blood, that we too
should offer to Him our own life and as a just debt pay that we live no more to ourselves,
but repay as it were the complete consecration unto holiness of our own souls.

For that the Precious Blood and Death of Christ Who died for all, both saved us from all
evil, and was the Giver of the spiritual circumcision, whereby we gain that we are joined
to God Who is over all, in this too shall we see. For thus it is written in respect of him
who was captain after Moses, I mean Joshua the son of Nun, And it came to pass after these
things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and
ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance: there they buried
with him, in the sepulchre wherein they buried him, the knives of flints wherewith he
circumcised the children of Israel. For the blessed Joshua died and was buried, and
profitably were the knives affixed to the sepulchre, which ministered to the type of
circumcision, that we again might understand by this that the grace of circumcision in
spirit the wooer for us of all heavenly goods, is bound up in the death of our Saviour
Christ.

We will then understand that the circumcision on the eighth day, taking it in no Jewish
sense, is the purification through the Spirit, in faith and the Resurrection of Christ,
the casting away of all sin, the destruction of death and corruption, the bestower of
holiness and ownness with Christ, the image of freedom, the way and door to close
friendship with God. Abundance then of spiritual considerations then having been now
contributed by us from all parts to these things, and the two chapters divided as was
meet, and we having concluded for each the discussion suiting it: it remains and is due to
say, why the spiritual circumcision prevails over even the honour of the sabbath. For
circumcision is to be received even on the sabbath day, unheeding the Law of not working
thereon. Since then the rest on the seventh day signifies freedom and rest from all
wickedness, and cessation from sin, and circumcision in spirit means nothing different
from these, as it were in another way (for I think that the being freed from superfluous
lusts, and overmuch pleasure, clearly results in rest from evil), we shall find not only
that circumcision in no way breaks the law respecting the sabbath, but even aids it and
all but coincides in one and the same language with it, openly proclaiming that one ought
to rest and to desist from evil: so that they both are the same, I mean both circumcision
and the rest of the sabbath (as one will most rightly deem), according to the concurrence
of both in one aim. For we will not adhere to the gross type of the history, but will
rather spiritually go to the oracles of the Spirit.

Unblameably therefore will the profit of circumcision on the sabbath too be brought in,
since as the Saviour saith, The priests in the temple profane the sabbath by ministering
thereon and not ceasing from their ordinary occupations, and are blameless, as the Judge
Himself hath testified to them, with greatest reason. For what time is there wherein we
ought to desist from works of holiness, and those wherein the Deity delighteth? at what
time is it not hurtful to slacken zeal in piety? The rest then on the sabbath day hath a
most praiseworthy ceasing and staying from wickedness only and from abominable sin, but by
no means hinders us from taking pleasure in holy deeds, and whatsoever any one supposes
will be of profit to his own soul, this too it enjoins him unblamed to take all pains
rightly to perform. This same profitableness you may see introduced also in the force of
circumcision. For in cutting away pleasure in the direction of evil, is perceived a birth
of resting from sin, and a beginning of worship in spirit and most holy conversation; and
the difference between them is slight, nevertheless a needful one. For in that He does not
command both to be observed on the seventh day, nor yet on the eighth; the plan of each
gives us to understand that there is a distinction. And this too has a meaning, and no
inelegant one, as seems to me. For resting from wickedness is not yet the utter casting
off also of wickedness.

For ofttimes our passions are quiet within us, yet are not wholly cast out of our mind,
but are by sober reasoning, as it were with a bridle, forcibly brought to the rest which
is uncongenial to them, yea and give way even against their will to the toils of
discipline also. But shaking off one's passions, as far as a man can do, is I suppose a
wholly different thing and far greater than resting from passion. Having thus arranged our
arguments on these matters, we must finally consider, that we shall not attain unto the
casting away of our passions or stumblings arising from pleasure, which is the meaning of
circumcision, unless we first cease from sin which goes forth into action, and hold as it
were in rest the motions of our mind which run unto transgression. For by using some step
of this kind, we shall easily attain what is yet greater and higher, I mean the total
casting off of our passions. But the rest from passion, seems to lie in some degree in our
own power (for we shall cease from evil, by giving the force of our wills to what is
better), but to be released from our passions is surely not in our own power, but is
verily the fitting work of Christ who suffered for us, that He might remodel all to
newness of life. Therefore meetly did circumcision obtain the eighth day, introducing the
renewing (so to say) time of the Resurrection, while the rest had the seventh day, its
neighbour and a little behind. For rest for a season and at will, falls and comes a little
short of the entire cutting off of the passions.


COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V
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COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V continued

BOOK V

25 Some therefore of them of Jerusalem said, Is not This He whom they seek to kill? Since
it was now the feast of the Law called the feast of tabernacles, and the Jews were
thronging, so to say, from all the region round about unto Jerusalem (for so had the
Lawgiver decreed), Christ was making His teaching to all. For not surely to the
townspeople alone was He speaking. He then that is a thorough searcher after learning, and
a diligent hearer, must investigate what induced the Divine Evangelist, to introduce all
the other multitude of the Jews as saying nothing, but to attribute the speech hereupon to
them of Jerusalem only; and what they were considering and reasoning among themselves when
they said these things: for a deep plan lies about this word. What then shall we say to
this? Since Christ the Saviour of us all had wrought signs scarce-counted in the city, and
had often taken up His abode in Jerusalem: certain of the city are (I suppose) persuaded,
they are advancing by degrees to a desire of at length believing on Him, but not openly
nor freely are they bold to love Him, terrified by the daring of their rulers and
constrained not of their own motion unto harmful fear. For this was the blessed Evangelist
clearly shewing, when he said in the foregoing that no man spake openly of Him for fear of
the Jews. He here calls the rulers Jews, shrinking, it seems to me, from giving the
appellation of rulers to such desperate men.

When then our Saviour Jesus Christ speaks openly and mightily attacks the madness of the
rulers, and convicts them (and that most clearly) of taking no account of the Law-giver,
but that turning aside without stint every man to his own way, they were falling
heedlessly into the desire to kill Him as though it were no crime, while He yet was
enduring no hurt from those, at whose hands it was likely He would undergo dreadful
things;----they of Jerusalem take this very circumstance as a proof and assurance of the
God-befitting Authority inherent in Him, and receiving this too as an addition to His
previous miracles, and heaping it up upon what had preceded, are being driven at length
with more fervent motions to the duty of believing on Him. Wherefore they acquiring
knowledge by right reasoning say, Is not This He Whom they seek to kill? For consider that
they all but holding their right hand on high, and reaching it hither and thither, point
out Him Who convicts them, and laugh seeing the untamed rage of these people allayed not
by subtle reasoning (how should it? but rather by God-befitting Power and Authority.

But we must note that they of Jerusalem alone speak contrary to all the rest of the Jewish
multitudes, and how, I will tell. When our Saviour Christ was once giving instruction in
things most excellent, the Pharisees stood by cut to the heart thereat, and already
unveiled as to their bold daring and pressing on to commit murder; to this He said,
convicting them as transgressors, who had made up their minds that they ought to slay Him,
Hath not Moses given you the law, and none of you keepeth the Law? why are ye seeking to
kill Me? And the whole aim of His discourse is shot forth against the hearts of the
rulers: nevertheless the multitude of the people are scared and, intolerant at the words,
answered more violently, saying, Thou hast a devil, who is seeking to kill Thee? But I
suppose it is manifest to every one, that Christ says these things, because He saw the
Pharisees desiring to kill Him. How is it, then that while certain here deny it and cry
out, Who is seeking to kill Thee, they of Jerusalem alone giving a contrary vote to all
the rest say, Is not this He Whom they are seeking to kill? and well this too They are
seeking, that to the rulers alone the daring deeds may be ascribed.

Probability then induces us to believe that the rest of the Jewish people were ignorant of
the design of their rulers, but that they of Jerusalem living for the most part with them
and inhabiting one city with them, and constantly meeting them, knew the unholy design
which close-filled them against the Saviour Christ. And it fell out that not merely
through the Voice of our Saviour was the polluted band of the Jews accused, but also by
the very flock that was under them, which by their senselessness was destroyed and borne
down the precipices. For haply one may (I deem) by what has been said see the flock
thirsting even now and enkindled as it were unto the faith in Christ, but lacking just a
little leading by the hand, which had they obtained, they would easily have received Him
Who came to us from Heaven. Responsible then are they to whom was allotted the presidency,
for the loss of the sheep. And the prophet Jeremiah is our witness, who crieth, For the
pastors became brutish, and sought not out the LORD; therefore the whole flock understood
not and were scattered.

26 Lo, He speaketh boldly to them, and they say nothing unto Him. They multiply
expressions of assurance among themselves, and advance as it were to more manifest proof,
beholding the unperilled boldness of Christ. For they are astonished and that with the
greatest reason at finding those that were of old ungodly brought to an unpractised and
unwonted patience and, beholding those who had been violent practising a gentleness that
was new to them, they thence go forth into reasonable surmises: and in that they wonder at
their forbearance in those matters in which they ought never to have been angry, in these
very things they are found to be blaming them, as though it were their habit without
discrimination to press hard upon the teachers of the most excellent doctrines, and to
proceed hotly against any one whatever, if he did but say things dissentient from them,
though he should agree with the Divine Law. For dreadful was the conceit of the Pharisees,
and the daring of their senselessness knew not bounds. Who then (say they) is He who tames
them for the present, and Who is it who puts on sober reasoning as a bridle of their of
old intolerable wrath? who He that has so charmed them and like serpents ever rearing
themselves lulls them to gentle sleep? Lo, He speaketh boldly and they say nothing unto
Him. Not merely does He speak, they say, but He speaketh boldly. And I do not suppose that
any one would justly accuse the wrath of those men of being still, if He that was sought
for had spoken against them in secret. For if it chanced not to have been known, neither
would their wrath have been excited, but though He spake boldly and advanced through the
keen reproof of them (for this the word boldly proves), they not only refuse to be angry,
though very prone to this disease, but even shrink from words. For they say nothing to
Him.

Do the rulers know indeed that He is the Christ? Seest thou how by reasonable inductions
and probable arguments they collecting the duty of believing, are well nigh ashamed
because their rulers do indeed now know Him, but while they shrink from openly fighting
against God, and endure not to shamelessly entreat Him that came from above, they do yet
bury in envious silence the open acknowledgement of Him? For if they knew not (say they)
of a truth that He is the Christ, what induces them to tolerate His boldly reproving them
and innovating even the things of old ordained, in that He was found healing even on the
sabbath day, and distressing them in no slight degree by saying outright, Hath not Moses
given you the Law, and none of you keepeth the Law? All this they bear, although affected
beyond endurance thereby, and accustomed hotly to attack even those who do them no wrong.
Going therefore through every argument they collect by degrees faith in Christ, but
attribute knowledge of a truth to their rulers, inasmuch as they were brought up even
before themselves in the holy writings, and are better able than themselves to understand
the mysteries of the Divine Scriptures. Observe throughout that the people of the Jews are
prepared unhesitatingly to follow their rulers, and they would have been surely preserved
if led aright by those over them.

Wherefore these shall undergo bitter punishment, since the Saviour Himself also accuses
them saying, Woe unto you, lawyers, for ye took away the hey of knowledge, ye entered not
in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye forbad. For a door as it were and gate to
the knowledge of God, and a way that easily leadeth to all virtue is the word of them that
teach aright, and the skill of the shepherd knoweth how to save the flock of sheep: even
as the contrary destroyeth them easily, and will bear away the flock down precipices even
against their will. 27 Howbeit we know This Man whence He is, but Christ, when He cometh,
we know not whence He is. Not from external considerations only, nor because their rulers
had made the pain of their reproof a thing to be borne, does the mind of them of Jerusalem
admit the faith; but it after having with great profit produced arguments from what was
likely and being brought to true conceptions of Christ through the God-befitting Authority
that is in Him, led at length not unskilfully to the apprehension of piety, falls again
without knowing it into the unlearning which was foster-brother to the Jews. For they who
had well considered those things seem as if they would hunt out the truth from all
quarters, and advance to the due faith not merely because of the silence of their rulers
and their unwonted gentleness, but would also search the Holy Scripture itself, invited
thereto by a right motive, but making their test of the Mystery wholly without instruction
or understanding. For merely because they know whence He is who is speaking boldly, that
is, from what village He sprang, of what parent He was born, they say that He is not He
Who was foretold by the Law. Then they add, but Christ when He cometh no man knoweth
whence He is. And it is clear (I suppose) to every one, that their mistake in this too
arose from unlearning. But I suppose one ought to search out whence their thoughts got to
this;

and what induced those who were well examining all about Him, to for this reason suppose
that He was not Christ, because they were not ignorant whence He was: and why they
subjoin, Christ when He cometh, no man knoweth whence He is: for by this they lose the
apprehension of the truth. There is therefore some saying of Isaiah concerning Christ
quoted, His generation who shall declare? for His Life is taken away from the earth. And
the blessed Prophet applying the expression to the Word of God, puts generation for Being.
For who at all can tell the mode of the Being of the Only-Begotten? what tongue shall
declare the unspeakable Birth of the Son from the Father? or what mind will not be
powerless for this? For that He was begotten of God the Father we know and have believed:
but the how, we say is unattainable by every mind, and the enquiry thereinto most
perilous. For we ought not to search into what is too deep, nor to scrutinize what is too
hard, but rather to holdfast what we are commanded, and have an unshaken belief concerning
God, that He is in truth, and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. But
we must not search into, as it is written, the things which surpass understanding and
thought, not merely our own, but also that of the whole creation, or even every reasonable
creature. Who then shall declare the generation of the Only-Begotten?

for His Life is taken away from the earth, that is, the tale of His Essence is higher than
all that are in the earth. For here again he calls His Being Life. This then led astray
the uninstructed mind of the Jews, and made them wander from the true discernment of
Christ. For they considered not (it seems) that the words of the holy prophets respecting
Him are two-fold. For sometimes they signify that He will come with Flesh into the world,
and manifest to us His Birth of a Virgin according to the Flesh. For behold, a Virgin
shall conceive, and bear a Son: yea and they clearly proclaim where He shall be born: And
thou, Bethlehem house of Ephratah, little art thou to be among the thousands of Judah; out
of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be Ruler in Israel, and His goings forth
from the beginning from the days of eternity. But when they are expounding (as far as is
possible) His Ineffable Generation from God the Father, they either say what we said
above, His generation who shall declare? for His Life is taken from the earth, or what is
joined to the passage cited, And His goings forth from the beginning from the days of
eternity. For here he means the goings forth of the Only-Begotten as Brightness from
Light, and a certain forthcome from the Essence of Him Who Begot Him into His Own Being
before all age and day and moment. Since then the Holy Scripture sets both before us, and
the sacred writings both tell us whence Christ shall be after the Flesh, and honour by
silence His Unsearchable Being from the Father, how will one not, finding the Jews in no
slight degree unlearned, with reason laugh aloud and say, Not merely from the Generation
of Christ being unknown, must one make enquiries respecting Him, but also from its being
known Who and whence He springs according to the Flesh?

28 Jesus therefore cried teaching in the temple and saying, Ye both know Me and know
whence I am. As the men of Jerusalem were gently whispering those things one to another
(for they durst not speak openly for fear of the Jews, as it is written) Christ again in
God-befitting way receives knowledge of the things spoken. But since He was considering
that it were fit to profit those men, He immediately shews the God-befitting Energy that
is in Him, and clearly reveals to them that He has knowledge of all things. For He lifts
up His cry on high, albeit before time not used to do so, and convicts them again of not
having any certain understanding of the Divinely-inspired Scripture, and makes what is
secret and has scarcely passed the mouth the basis of His Discourse. Next from those very
things from which they foolishly supposed that they ought not to believe Him does He
persuade them outright that they ought to believe: such is the pregnant meaning of what He
says. Ye marvel (He says) and that most justly, that Power truly God-befitting is in Me,
easily taming the purpose of the Jews, murderous though it be: for they seek to kill Me,
as ye have truly and accurately remarked, and are putting forth all their diligence to
that end.

But (He says) when I should be fleeing, and getting Me as far off as possible from those
who think it right to kill Me, I caring not a whit for their mad folly, on the contrary
speak boldly and convict those who break the Law by not choosing to judge just judgment,
and I suffer nothing at all. For they who of old were fierce forbear against their will,
and this not the fruit of their own free choice, but the effect of My Authority. For I do
not suffer them, although madly raging, and whetted unto inhuman wrath, to dare before the
time their murderous purpose towards Me. At these things then (He saith) ye have been most
reasonably astonished, and say that the rulers know of a truth that I am the Christ. And
ye, following out suitable reasoning herein, turning away to the oracles of Divine
Scripture, when ye ought rather to have been benefited therefrom, confirmed in your
conception of Me, on the contrary ye were offended. For from your merely knowing whence I
am, and of whom I am born, ye have decided (He saith) that I am not the Christ. Know
therefore, that ye both know Me and know whence I am, that is the Divinely-inspired
Scripture has given you both to know Me and whence I am. And not because ye know (may be)
that I am of Nazareth or Bethlehem, and that I am born of a woman, ought ye therefore to
admit the disease of unbelief;

but from those things that are spoken of Me, and because of My Birth after the Flesh,
ought ye the rather to advance to the apprehension of the Mysteries respecting Me, and not
to turn aside merely at a single voice of a Prophet, who is telling My Ineffable
Generation from God the Father. And of Myself I am not come, but He is true That sent Me.
Under the guise of defence He finds fault with the Jews who were insulting through long
unbelief. With no slight skill then He composing His Discourse, by every means contrives
not to seem to excite His hearers by any occasion to reasonable displeasure, but veiling
His words in obscurity, He beguiles their excess of anger and draws off the edge of their
passion. Why then (He says) do they, when I have often explained and openly cried out that
I am sent by God the Father, still disbelieve, and because they know His Birth after the
Flesh, say that He is not He Who was fore-heralded by the Law and fore-declared by the
holy Prophets, and well nigh meet Him with the words: Thou utterest lies O Sir, coming to
us, according to Thine Own Will, and dost Thou not blush feigning the Name of the Father?
Repelling therefore this accusation of theirs as to this too, He mingles reproof with His
defence, and most excellently says, Of Myself I am not come, but Se is True That sent Me.
For it is your custom (He saith) O ye who dare all things with ease, and advance
heedlessly to all, even the most heinous actions, sometimes to prophesy falsely, and
though God hath not sent you, to say that ye are sent by God. But I am not like you, nor
yet will I imitate your well-practised villany. I am not come of Myself, nor Mine Own
messenger, like you, but I am come from Heaven:

True is He That sent Me, not like your lie-loving sender, the devil, whose spirit ye
receiving are bold too to prophesy falsely. True then is He That sent Me, but he that
stirred you up to invent words from God, is not true. For he is a liar, and the father of
liars. But that we shall find the Jews accustomed to prophesy lies, we shall see without
any trouble from the words of the Prophets. For most plainly doth the Lord of all say of
them, I sent not the prophets, yet they ran, I spake not to them, and they prophesied. And
again in Jeremiah, The prophets prophesy lies in My Name, I sent them not and spake not to
them and commanded them not; for visions and divinations and prophecies of their own heart
do they prophesy unto you. The arrogant Jew then is reproved for this that he fastened
upon Christ his own boldness against God, i. e., false prophecy. For the utter disbelief
in Him Who cries that He is sent from God, even the Father, what else is it save openly to
cry out, Thou prophesiest falsely, imitating our practices against ourselves?

29 Whom YE know not, but I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me. Ye have just said
(He saith) When Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is. But since ye insist that ye
hold this your opinion rightly, as being the truth, I agree to your words herein. For True
is He of Whom I am, the Father, but He is not known of you. Since then (He says) ye search
into the Mystery respecting Me in a manner most unadvised, but as is pleasing to
yourselves, and from knowing Who and whence I am after the Flesh, dismiss from yourselves
the duty of believing, do ye for this sole cause receive the faith, when ye find that ye
understand not whence I am: for I am of the Father, Whom YE know not, since ye know not
Him That is of Him, in Whom Alone the Father is to be seen. For he that hath seen the Son
hath seen the Father, and he that knoweth the Son is not ignorant of Him that begat. All
their quibbling therefore being by this taken from them, they are again taken in their
malice, finding no longer any excuse for their unbelief, who have thrust away the
knowledge through their own stubbornness, that that may be found true which is written, Ye
see often and ye kept not, your ears opened and ye heard not.

But since He was occupied upon the words of the Jews, that when Christ cometh no man
knoweth whence He is, withdrawing Himself of necessity, as God, from the company of things
originate, and from all else to whom the title no man may reasonably be applied, shewing
that He is Other by Nature, He says that He is not as they are, ignorant of His Own
Father, but affirmed that He knows in all exactness both Himself and Him. For He is God of
God the Father, possessed of a certain wondrous and strange knowledge of these things, as
befitteth Himself Alone. For not in like manner as we know, in the same doth the Son know
the Father. For the nature of things originate attaineth to the sight of God by conception
only, and not overpassing the bounds which befit it, doth even against its will yield to
the Divine Nature, the being veiled in ineffable words. But the Only Begotten of God the
Father, vieweth Whole in Himself Him That begat Him, and pourtraying the Essence of the
Father in His Own Nature, knoweth Him, in a way impossible to tell: for unutterable are
the things of God.

CHAPTER I. That human affairs are not, according to the unlearned surmises of the Greeks,
subject as of necessity to the Hours, but that of our own choice we advance both to good
and to the contrary: and that we are directed by the Will of God. 30 The Jews therefore
were seeking to take Him: and no man laid a hand on Him, because His hour was not yet
come. The Pharisees cut with His reproaches, and perceiving that their silence in those
matters was not without damage to their own stubbornness, and was of benefit to the
multitudes (for they were being persuaded of the duty of at length acknowledging that He
is Christ), are carried along unto their wonted presumption, and again thirst for His
Blood. For thrusting aside reverence for the law, as most unserviceable to them, and
taking no account of what is contained in the Sacred Writings, and deeming not worthy of
remembrance the command, The innocent and righteous slay thou not, they are sick of a most
unrighteous madness against Christ. But by the Divine Might the result of their devices is
turned to the utter contrary. For the deceitful man shall not attain his prey, as it is
written. For they seek to take Him, as the Evangelist saith, as though they had kept a
voluntary and self-imposed silence at His rebukes, and would repel by their after wrath
all appearance of having been kept back by Him. For this some of them of Jerusalem had
accepted as a proof that Jesus is by Nature God, saying, Lo, He speaketh boldly, and they
say nothing unto Him: do the rulers know indeed that He is the Christ? But He Who taketh
the wise in their own craftiness, rendereth their daring most useless to them who thus
schemed, and confirmeth to the multitudes what had been bruited in secret by way of
consideration and conjecture.

For they are repressed by a God-befitting operation, which putteth a bridle upon their
unholy deeds, and permitteth their designs to stretch forth but to attempts. For
profitably did the most wise Evangelist put forward the reason of their being unable to
carry through their proposed design to its fulfilment (for says he, His hour was not yet
come). Here he evidently calls hour the time, i. e., of His Passion, and of the Precious
Cross. To whom then will it not be evident by this also, that Christ would not have
suffered at all, if He had put away the will to suffer? For not by the violence of the
Jews, but of His own Will did He come to the Cross for our sakes and on account of us.
Wherefore also He saith, averting the reproach of seeming powerlessness, No man taketh My
life from Me, I lay it down of Myself: I have power to lay it down, and again I have power
to take it. For as we have already before said, He bare no unwilling Cross for us. For He
hath offered Himself as a Holy Sacrifice to God the Father, purchasing the salvation of
all men by His Own Blood. Wherefore He also said in the Gospel preachings, For their sakes
do I sanctify Myself. But sanctify He here says for "offer," and "consecrate; for that
which is offered in sacrifice to God is holy.

But that He accepted being the Sacrifice for all free from all violence from any, we shall
know when we hear Him saying in the Psalms to God the Father, Sacrifice and, offering Thou
wouldest not, but a Body preparedst Thou Me: in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for
sin Thou tookest no pleasure: then I said, Lo I come, in the chapter of the book it is
written of Me, to do Thy will, O God. Seest thou how of His own accord He comes unto His
Passion for all? For He says, Lo I come, not, I am taken by compulsion by another. He
escapes then from the present violence of the rulers, reserving His Passion for its
appointed time, and using a most God-befitting boldness in all things. I suppose then that
this will suffice for the elucidation of the present passage, but since it is probable
that some of the initiated on hearing the words, His hour had not yet come, may be carried
away out of too great levity unto the mad folly of the Greeks, so as unreasonably to
suppose that the affairs of man are subject to hours and days and seasons, I deem it
necessary to say a little on this subject, since our aim is by every thought zealously to
provide what is profitable to our readers. To the children of the Church then who are
brought up on the Holy Scriptures, I suppose that will suffice for the refutation of the
wiles of the Greeks and for the satisfactory casting off of the uncounsel hence arising,
which is said by way of accusation or wise rebuke by Paul himself to some who were thus
minded, Ye are observing days and months and times and years; I am afraid of you, lest I
have toiled for you in vain. And indeed, apart from all subtlety of argument, it is
manifest that he which is involved in such folly, will both destroy his own soul, and be
found to dishonour the Maker of us all, to whom Alone wise and well-tutored reason
attributes the helm of our affairs.

But they who are minded unrightly to observe those things, will overturn the order of
Providence, and believe that the Lord of all things is no longer Dispenser of our affairs,
but will commit to times and seasons the government over all things, setting the creation
over its Maker and despoiling of fairest Attributes, Him to Whom is due all honour and
glory and worship, bestowing on the creature what is above it, and imparting to things
made that wherewith they ought to crown the Creator: nor will their evil deeds stop here,
but will advance to something yet heavier, for they will openly reproach God, lover of
good, and will say that He, the enemy of all sin, is Himself the worker of evil deeds. For
if by Him have been made time and hour and day and year, and these bring certain, of
necessity and violence, unto sometimes unpurposed wickedness, and cause them to fall into
the misfortunes consequent thereupon, how does not what we say shew itself to be true? And
what then becomes of what is said by the all-wise Moses, And God saw (he says) every thing
that He had made, and behold it was very good? But time is one of the every thing; and in
time are both hour and day and year.

But if we call that the introducing of evil, which the Eye of the Divine Nature saw to be
good, shall we not be confessing outright that the Lord of all is found to be the Creator
of things most base? I think then that those who are involved in the offences just
mentioned will at length blush. But since it is probable that some have chosen not only
not to resist the un-counsels of the Greeks, but even to defend them, come let us consider
the absurdity inherent in their doctrine in another light also and, heaping up profitable
arguments as auxiliaries, let us lead out the truth against their abominations. For if
according to you, sirs, at the, so to say, forcible invitation of time, and on the
compulsion of the hour, we are drawn to ought good or the contrary, as it may be, then
superfluous (as it seems) were reason, guiding us to each action, both counselling us to
decline from ill deeds, and exhorting us rather to hasten after what is approved. For what
benefit (tell me) remains, what advantageth sound reason, if I must surely suffer and
advance even against my will, whithersoever the hour invites and the season chooses to
compel? it is meet then, as they say that pilots of ships do, when they declare there is
no hope of the ship being saved in the peril of the storm, to let go every rope, and undo
the very tillers, no more enduring any skill therein, and to commit it to the force of the
waves and to be tossed on the sea.

For nought, nought (from what has been already said) is either the gain to those who
desire virtue, nor yet will harm spring up to the workers of evil, unless we receive from
God according to each one of the things we have wrought, and receive recompense according
to the quality of our actions. For (tell me) will not the hour oftentimes mark out what is
most excellent, and the season without distinction profit, even if I be taken in the
basest deeds? Again on the other hand, the season will sometimes appoint not a single good
thing to some, but rather will bring, so to say, the hardest of all things, upon those who
have aimed at honouring above all things the performance of good deeds. But (haply some
one will say) it will be no such thing as this, but the hour and season will give to each
what suits him.

Therefore the season will now reign over us, we will put about the hours the dignity of
Providence, having no more thought of God, we will ask by prayer, of Him nought, but of
the time or the season. And what follows? we shall worship the creature more than the
Creator, and blasphemously give the glory of the Creator to things made by Him. The
disgrace hence accruing and the magnitude of the blasphemy, we shall see with no great
trouble to have abomination more open than that of women who are courtesans. But what
comes into our minds, we will say for profit's sake. Superfluously, it appears, do the
laws both of God and man mark out to lovers of wickedness the punishments suitable for
them, and add honours to those whose special aim it is to desire to live more rightly. For
if nothing at all lies within our own wills, but all is subject to the necessity from the
hours, which lead us without escape or power of refusal to both [good and evil], how can
we still rightly allow that praise is meet for the good, and allot the contrary to those
who are not so, as their just meed? Why (tell me) do the laws compel us to depart from
vice, and press forward after what is better, if others hold the reins of our resolves,
and easily bring us to whatsoever they please?

For they say and will have it so, that human affairs are under the authority of the hours,
taking no thought of the absurdity thence resulting. For will they not declare, even
against their will, that he, .whose is the supremacy over all things that are upon the
earth, will be more wretched than the very brutes, and will live in pitiable state, and he
who ought to excel by reason of his nature, will be brought down to the second, yea, even
to the last place? For if the beasts by their self-ruling impulses, turn, no one hindering
them, to what they please, and admit what they know to be wholesome, and shun what will
hurt them, and WE are in bondage to time, that bitter master, and have the authority of
the hours, a tyranny not to be escaped, suspended over us like a staff, shall not our
condition be far worse than theirs is?

But he will blush, as is probable, who would fain be for (yea rather utter lies against)
the hours and times, which were never created for any such purposes, and rejecting the
absurdity of such opinions, will come forward saying: "We do not, sir, declare that the
hour nor yet the time or season has authority over the affairs of men, but we say that
there are evil hours, and seasons too, which sometimes like raging winds, spring upon us
miserable." But we shall answer, O mad in mind, and steeped in sheer 1 insanity, how is it
that YE do not perceive that ye arming your own mind against That Essence which is above
all? for will not He be a worker of iniquity, if ought of the things made by Him be
wicked? But this, as we have mentioned it before, we will pass over, and will rather
endeavour to be persuaded by you, how the hour or season could hurt us, or on the contrary
rejoice us, did not God order all things according to His will, and will that they should,
as belongeth to each, give either pain or contrariwise pleasure? For we but now heard you
say, that nought of our affairs are under the authority of the hours, but that some are by
nature evil, and are borne violently down upon us like the wind. But I do not think it
will be any hard matter to shew that this your argument is replete with extremest folly.
For who does not clearly see that the twelve intervals of the hours are meted out, some to
the day, others to the night, and that night and day do not come to one man, to another
not, but pervade all things? but their evil, innate and unavoidably tending thereto, is
not evil to one, to another not, nor yet to one perchance, or a second, but rather will
bring harm in equal degree upon all, upon whom the interval of night or of day comes?

How then does it happen that in a single day or hour, one may see one man prosperous and
enjoying himself with many jovial companions, so as to go to sumptuous feasts and gather
together with much diligence his guests, and others you may clearly see in opposite
plight, so that one is often borne forth to die miserably. What (tell me) is the reason,
or how is it possible, that in one single hour or period, one person is found in the
former state, another in the latter? what will you call that hour? evil, or the reverse?
for I cannot say, looking at either side and finding one man revelling, another lying a
breathless and miserable corpse. Will not then those opinions respecting the hours be
proved an unlearned fable, and the inventions of devilish madness? I think all will agree
to this without any hesitation, and will condemn those who hold such opinions. And we
might well, I think, be content with what has been said, but lest by committing every
thing to hazard and conjecture I should leave an excuse for quibbling to any, I will
betake myself to history, and from facts will confirm past all doubt the already beaten
track of our argument. When the Assyrians then encompassing the holy city (I mean the holy
Jerusalem) were purposing to besiege it, their general, Rabshakeh, was first endeavouring
at one time by words of guile to undermine the minds of the fighting men which were
therein, at another thought to do this by threats:

and the blessed Hezekiah who at that time held the kingly power trusted not in his forces,
but attributed the achievement of victory to God Who is over all, and by most fervent
prayer did he keep calling for the alone aid which is from Him, and immediately did God
incline His Ear to the righteous man, and granted him grace answerable to his prayers. For
the angel of the Lord went forth, as it is written, and slew out of the camp of the aliens
an hundred fourscore and five thousand. What then will you say to this, o most excellent
of men? In one night and in the same hour and season, the Assyrian fell overpowered by
Angel's hand, the multitude of them of Jerusalem was saved, and the one were in the depths
of misery, the other in joy and delight. Where is the power of the hour? how was it
apportioned unequally for both? and for the one it wrought rejoicing, for the other an
evil death? For you will not venture to call it two-natured and multiform, even though you
babble exceedingly. The same argument will hold as to Dathan and Abiram, who having once
made a sedition against the authority of Moses, and fearing not unbidden to spring upon
the office of the Divine priesthood, went down with all their household into the depths of
the earth; and they were in Hades, while the rest of the congregation were preserved.

But the vengeance surely should not forsooth, since it was not at all that of Divine
wrath, but of the hour, have burst forth upon one part merely of the assembly, but should
have taken hold on the whole equally. Let us not then admit that hour or day or season is
the giver either of sorrow or joy, in respect of its own nature or however one might
rightly speak of it; but let us grant the profit from the hour or season and contrariwise
the damage, when we setting to either skilfully or ignorantly, meet with results pleasant
or otherwise. For example, To every thing a season, as it is written, and to know the fit
times, is most useful, not to know them, replete with damage. For in winter one ought not
to make voyages, to do so in summer is not ill-instructed. Being thus minded we shall
commit the helm of our affairs to God the Lord of all. For if, according to the unlying
word of the Saviour, this little sparrow of no worth shall never fall into a snare without
the Will of God the Father, how shall he who is so honoured and has the authority over
all, suffer ought contrary to his mind or wish, unless Providence brings upon him any of
the things above mentioned in accordance with the life of each?

I will further add another thing which has been shaken out and come forth of my memory,
exceeding kin to the present matter, yea rather calling for the same investigation, though
the solution be not hard, but most easy to the man of full understanding and that hath the
senses of his understanding exercised to discern both good and evil. What then is this, of
which we so speak? They of Cana, inhabiting the country bordering on Judea, namely
Galilee, were once celebrating a marriage, and they invited the Lord to their banquet with
His Mother and the holy disciples, and the cause of this their feast was the marriage-bed.
But when sitting at meat with those who with Him were assembled for this purpose, the Lord
was there to bless that marriage which He had ordained, wine began to fail the company.
But the Mother of the Saviour as still having authority over her Son, by reason of His
exceeding subjection, and having now learnt by much experience Him too that hath God-
befitting Power, saith, They have no wine. For she knew that He would perform, and that
most easily, whatever the nature of things required. And the Lord said to her, Woman what
have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. The devout mind, then, far removed from
monstrous opinions, and fleeing utterly Greek superstition, will receive piously what is
said. For not yet He says, is the time of My manifestation, i. e., by miracles, come.

For being God by Nature, He was not ignorant of the time befitting each work (how could
He? But he who of his exceeding senselessness turns about hither and thither (for evil is
a beaten track to the multitude, who suppose, as certain trifling say, that Christ Himself
also was subject to the operations of the hours,) will be here proved by us to have no
understanding and by those very things by which he looked to strengthen his own argument,
by these will he be condemned for the inherent absurdity of his tenets. For if we grant
that the nature of things is subjected to the operations of the hours, and that therefore
Christ said to His Mother, Mine hour is not yet come, how (tell me) when according to your
abominable and most unwise reasoning He had not yet the operation of the hour to cooperate
with His Will, does He become the Creator of the things asked for? for forthwith He
manifestly turns water into wine. But if ye think that affairs must be subject to the
authority of the hours, how ought not the Lord at the first not a whit to have attempted
to accomplish what the concourse of the hours did not grant? But evidently He took no
thought of this, but gave them His Grace before that time. The power of the hour was then
no hindrance, but since the time was not yet come for His proclamation by miracles, does
Christ say thus.

We are then set free from your surmises hereon, and when hour is mentioned, let it be
considered to be the time which suits each work: and that we too are set free from the
necessity of the hours, I think needs no more expenditure of words to prove: for we have
already sufficiently gone through this. But we will endeavour to shew now, that we shall
find that hour in the Divine Scriptures signifies the time suitable to each action. And
the admirable Paul cries out and indicates the meaning of the word hour, And that, knowing
the time, that it is the hour for you to awake out of sleep: the night is far spent, the
day hath drawn near. Thou seest how having first put time, he added hour, as indicating by
the same, it, and not ought else. For it was time that they who lay in the deep sleep of
sin should rouse themselves and open their eyes to what was their profit, and be raised to
a God-loving watchfulness.

31 Of the multitude therefore many believed on Him, and said, The Christ when He cometh,
will He do more miracles than those which This Man did? How great the economy herein, and
how fitly it hath followed after those things, is meet to see. For having before said that
the Jews were seeking to take Him and to enclose Him by the meshes of their senselessness,
into so cruel and unseasonably contrived danger, he shews the multitudes of them that
believe, that the ill machinations of their rulers against Him may at length be
acknowledged. So far are the people from desiring to rage against Him, that they at length
even gather some ideas from His miracles, and openly confess that they ought to give heed
to His doctrines. For a report (it seems) was noised abroad throughout the whole race of
the Jews and spread throughout all their country, that the Presence of Christ would be for
some mighty deeds, and that He would work exceeding miracles, and introduce teaching more
notable far and superior to the instruction of the Law. For the woman of Samaria, when she
came to Jacob's well to draw water and was conversing with the Saviour, said, We know that
Messias cometh Which is called Christ, when He is come, He will tell us all things. And
the words, we know, here, we shall not reasonably apply to the woman alone, but joining
the whole race of Samaritans and Jews, we shall confirm the argument we have just adduced.

These then now perceiving that the glorious hopes commonly entertained of Him do not
surpass what was already present, well-nigh speak thus one to another, For what hath the
Law declared that Christ should be revealed to us? what manner of man hath the word of the
holy Prophets foretold? a Worker of miracles plainly and instructer in what is most
excellent. But we see that He Who is now come is wholly pre-eminent unto both. What
exceedingness in miracles remains for them who conceive of somewhat greater yet? In what
difficulty has He failed? what that is above utterance and miraculous has He not wrought?
in whom shall we still seek for more? let us see whether Christ have not at length reached
the bounds of all marvel! what is looked for in Christ which is not apparent in this Man?
Shameless now at length is the withholding of our faith, senseless our indifference, and
quite unpersuasive the argument of delay under colour of choosing the best. Let God be
confessed: for this the nature of things requires, even of those who will it not.

Not unsuitably then nor unbecomingly, might one put this in the mouth of the Jews. We must
note however that through the perverseness of the rulers the subjects perished: for the
one were most admirable guessers, led by the renown of His Works to the duty of believing
on Him, and only waiting for the judgment of their rulers concerning Christ; and these
were so mighty in savage cruelty, as to attempt to ill-treat Him Who had been foretold for
vast hopes, and was accredited by what He had already wrought. 32 The chief priests and
Pharisees heard the people murmuring these things concerning Him. The multitude are with
great reason indignant against their rulers. For they were making a great outcry
respecting our Saviour Christ, not because He was a wondrous Wonder-worker and beyond
expectation, nor yet because He came telling of things better than the legal worship; but
because He was not yet accepted by the chief priests and Pharisees, albeit having glory
answerable to what was spoken of Christ, and no whit inferior to what the common reports
tell of Him, or the word of the holy Prophets fore-heralded. So then they justly accuse
them of being overcome with envy rather than really caring for the salvation of the
people. But the constant utterance of blame as to this does not escape the knowledge of
the rulers, and the multitude (it seems) gave them offence, now reasonably astonished at
the Lord, and thirsting exceedingly to believe on Him, and already ill enduring the yoke
of the rulers' arrogance, and essaying to do that which is said in the Psalms, Let us
break their bands asunder, and cast away their yoke from us. For by not subjecting the
mind of the people to the commands of the Law, but placing them in subjection to their own
inventions, and teaching for doctrines the commands of men, they, leaving the right way
and beaten track were conducting among precipices and foot-falls, those who were even now
ready to be saved and of themselves were being led to rightness of conception.

And the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to take Him. Albeit the Law
declared, The innocent and righteous thou shalt not slay, and every where clearly crieth
aloud, Thou shalt not be with the multitude to do evil, the guardians of the Law desire to
kill, overbearing in respect of esteeming Moses' Law holy, and accustomed to blame every
one who did not live in the same way. But caring nothing for the Law in these matters, and
so to say, spurning its most precious things, they are zealous to take in their meshes Him
That had done no wrong at all, but rather is now by His very works accredited that He is
indeed the Christ. And surely (some one will reasonably say) these ungodly rulers of the
Jews ought, since they are learned in the Divine Oracles and skilled in the Divine Laws,
rather to speak to the multitudes, to turn aside their clamour hereat by reasonable
arguments, and to thrust aside all suspicions of envy, and turn them to think as they
should do, if in ought they, travailing with right surmises about Christ, seemed to have
fallen therefrom: they ought to have proved by testimonies from the Prophets and, going in
short through the whole Divine Scripture, to have cleansed the multitude from their errors
and, as knowing more, to have taught them clearer truth about Christ.

But finding no defence from thence, in fear of the holy Scripture, as finding that it
agreed with the multitude in accusing them, they fall into shameless daring, and strive to
make away with Christ, not being able to convict Him of any offence. And most intolerable
of all, this resolution is that not of chance people, but the daring deeds of the chief
Priests coincident in mind with the Pharisees, albeit they ought to have led them inasmuch
as they were superior through the office of the priesthood and, since they had the first
place through this, they ought to have shewn themselves guides in thoughts of good also,
and to have taken the lead in counsel not counter to God. But since they are outside of
any good disposition, and have cast the Divine Law behind their own imaginations, they are
carried to that alone which pleased their own undiscerning impulses. For the head has
become the tail, as it is written. For he that is chief follows, and consenting to the
impiety of the Pharisees, makes now his unbridled attacks against Christ too. But without
a cause is ever found to be the war of the wicked against the pious, and the mode of their
contest so to speak halteth, unaided by the auxiliaries of reasonable causes, and merely
hampered by the disease of envy.

For since they are not able to compete with their mighty deeds, nor through equal strength
of soul to attain corresponding glory, or even by better deeds to be seen in better case,
they fall into savage-ness of mind, and foolishly arm themselves against the praises of
those who surpass them, zealous for the destruction of what makes them to be disgraced.
For evil is ever convicted by juxta-position with the better. For they ought rather to
desire by equal actions to equal them, and to be zealous rather to do and think the same
with those who are praised. But it was likely that the Pharisees should be bitterly
disposed. For since they perceived that the multitudes were murmuring, and even now in
common talk one to another saying, Is not This He Whom they seek to kill? lo, He speaketh
boldly, and they say nothing unto Him: do the rulers know that He is the Christ? repelling
again this supposition with the wickedness that was their foster sister, they give orders
to bind Him, and send out officers to accomplish this very purpose.

33 Jesus therefore said unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto
Him That sent Me. The Lord is not ignorant, inasmuch as He is by Nature God, of the
Pharisees' bloodthirsty deeds of daring, and of the unholy design of the chief priests
against Himself. For with the Eyes of Deity He beholds now present and mingled with the
multitudes, the servants who had been chosen by them to take Him. Therefore He makes His
answer common indeed as to all the people standing round, yet having a special answer to
them, and at the same time teaches much that is profitable. For He threatens them
skilfully, yea He convicts them of pettiness of soul in regard to those things at which
they ought to be pleased: and that in another way should their attempt be frustrate, even
though it were to take place', and how, we will say, going through the whole account. For
in saying, Yet a little while am I with you, He evidently all but teaches them, Tell Me
(says He) why are ye indignant as though I were lingering too long in this world? I am
burdensome to you, I confess it, and am no great pleasure to those who honour not virtue;
dashing in pieces him who loves not God, and smiting at times with My rebukes the ungodly,
I am not ignorant that I have wrought hatred for Myself. But do not thus untimely spread
forth the net of death for Me.

Yet a little while shall I be with you, I shall depart with joy, when the fit time for My
Passion comes, nor shall I endure any more to be with evil men (for not pleasant to Me, He
says, is the abode with the bloodthirsting) I shall depart from the ungodly, as God, but
shall be with Mine Own all the days of the world, even though I seem to be absent in the
Flesh. But in saying, I go to Him That sent Me, He means something again of this kind: In.
vain did ye sharpen against Me (He says) the sword of your own blasphemy. Why do ye tear
yourselves to pieces with fruitless counsels? stay the weapon of envy, for it is shot
forth for nothing: it will not subject Life to death, neither will corruption have the
better of incorruption. I shall not be holden of the gates of Hades, I shall not be a dead
body in your graves, I shall fly up to Him from Whom I am, I shall ascend again to Heaven,
seen as an accusation of your blasphemy by both angels and men. For the one shall marvel
at My going up, the other when they meet Me shall say, What are these Wounds in Thine
Hands? And I shall say unto them, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My
beloved. The speech then has been made in great meekness and exceeding gentleness, for our
example in this too:

whence Paul also says that the servant of God must not strive, but be gentle unto all men,
in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. For it behoves the pious mind to be
free from all tumult and the fierce motions of wrath, and to study to refuse as a wild
onslaught of waves what comes of pettiness of soul, and to rejoice in thoughts of meekness
like breezeless calms, and to love to live as much as possible in longsuffering, to shew
himself forbearing to all, and hold fast a mind wholly good, and make his conversation
with his enemies not unseemly. 34 Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me. This too He
says skilfully and with much gentleness. For it means what taken generally is not
difficult of comprehension, yet contains it some keen mystery hidden within it. For when
He says that He shall ascend to Him That sent Him, that is, to God the Father, even though
they yet attempt to plot against Him, and do not cease from persecuting Him, He is saying
that He That hath ascended into the very Heavens can never be taken by them. But the truer
meaning and that which is darkly signified, is this: I (He says) was sent to give you
life, I came to take away from human nature death which from transgression fell upon it,
and with long-suffering to bring back to . God those who through sin had stumbled: I came
to engraft the Divine and Heavenly Light in those in darkness, and moreover to preach the
Gospel to the poor, to give recovery of sight to the blind, to preach deliverance to the
captives, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And since it seems good to you in
your senselessness to drive forth from you Him who sets before you so rich enjoyment of
heavenly goods, after a little I Myself will take Me again to Him from Whom I am, and YE
shall repent, and consumed by unavailing after-counsels weep bitterly for yourselves, and
though ye should fain find yet the Giver of Life, ye shall not then be able to enjoy Him
ye long for. For after having once turned aside and departed from My Love towards you, I
shall wholly shut out from you what is profitable to seek after.

Something of this kind we shall also find in the preachings of the Prophets concerning
them. For a certain one saith of them of Jerusalem, With sheep and bullocks shall they go
to seek the Lord, and shall not find Him, for He hath withdrawn from them. For they who
would not when it was in their power choose Life, and with foolish reasonings thrust away
the good that was in their power, how shall they be fit any more to receive it? and they
who made no account of missing the opportunity, how can they have the good things out of
their season? For it is while the opportunity exists and is yet present, that we must seek
for the good things that are in it and of it, but when it is now passed away and gone by,
superfluous at last and most vain is all seeking after the good things it contained. And
verily the blessed Paul saith, Behold, now is the accepted time, behold now the day of
salvation, and also, While we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men. For indeed,
indeed it beseems those who are good in their habits, not when opportunity is now passing
her prime, to have to seek forher good things, but rather when she is commencing and
shewing so to say, her most blooming presence.

And one might yet say much more about occasion out of the Divine Scripture, but leaving it
for the labour-loving to search them out, I will say a little thing common, and in use
among us, but which yet has no mean profit. They say then that those who make pictures on
tablets, when they represent occasion in human form, represent the remaining fashion of
her body as pleases them, but the head alone like this. They represent her behind as bald
and very smooth, touching it with brilliant tints: but from the middle of the scull, they
hang much hair over the forehead, full in front and flowing: by this form itself
signifying, that while any occasion still exists, and meets us, so to say, face to face,
it may easily be laid hold of, but when it is now passed, how can it any longer be taken
hold of? being as it were bushy and easy to hold, while yet present, but when passed, no
longer. For this the smoothness behind indicates, which all but mocks the hand of him that
would hold it. Since then when occasions are passed, we have not what they bring, let us
not slumber when good things are present, but rather watch, and not when search is
useless, unwisely use diligence to catch what is profitable.

And where I am, YE cannot come. With greatest gentleness does He again put the race of the
Jews forth from the kingdom of Heaven, adding words correspondent to those that He had
already uttered, yet concealing therein a deep Mystery. For applying our mind more simply
to the words, and admitting a more surface consideration thereof, we say that it signifies
something of this sort, that He will in no wise be apprehensible by them, nor yet will
fall into their meshes, having gone back to the Father. For not accessible to them shall
be the Heaven too, and He That sitteth by God the Father Himself, how shall He be to be
taken of them that seek Him? This one word therefore is not deep, but more suited to the
levity of the Jews, and superior to 2 their understandings (for they are found ever to
mind what is more low): but the exact and secret mind of the things said is after this
sort; I (He says) having escaped the snare of your unholiness, shall be received back to
God the Father; for I shall surely prevent in My departure My worshippers, in order that
having shewn the way that upward tends, passable to them too, I may have all with Myself.

But YE cannot come where I am, that is, ye shall be found without lot in the Divine good
things, ye shall be without share in My glory and alien from co-reigning with the saints,
untasting shall ye abide of the gift that is in hope, unfeasting shall ye be of the Divine
marriage-feast, Mine assemblyshall ye not see, ye shall not ascend up to the mansions
above, nor shall behold the beauty of the Church of the first-born, unseen of you shall be
the city that is above, ye shall not behold Jerusalem in her prosperity 3: for there shall
My flock glorify Me, YE cannot come. For the Heaven will not receive slayers of her Lord,
nor the Cherubim open the gates of Paradise for a people to enter in who fight against
God, never shall a man guilty of impiety against God appease the flaming sword, it only
knows the pious man and honours the devout, and makes faith its covenant of peace.

Some such thought as this shall we bring to what has been said, from all sides tracking
the sense which is true and befits those who have understanding. But we will add to them
some few things, shewing for profit's sake that all who attain unto devout habits, shall
both be with and feast with Christ: but they who go along with Jewish unlearning, not so
(whence could it be?), but shall undergo the bitter punishme'nt of their unbelief. Let
then the Divine Paul come in crying aloud to those who have died to sin, For ye died and
your life has been hidden with Christ in God: when Christ, your Life, shall appear, then
shall YE also appear with Him in glory: and again putting forth his discourse on the
resurrection, he says. And we which are alive, which remain, shall be caught up together
with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the
Lord. And things akin to this is the Saviour Himself too seen discoursing of to His
disciples. For as He sat and did eat with them, He says, But I say unto you, I will not
drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in
the kingdom of Heaven:

yea and to the robber who hung on high along with Him, at the very gates of death through
faith in Him seizing on the grace of the saints, He saith, Verily, verily I say unto thee,
to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. They then who by obedience have honoured Him,
shall be with Him unhindered, and shall delight them in the good things that pass
understanding: but they who refuse not to insult Him with their folly, albeit sons of the
bridechamber 4, shall go away in sorrow to hell, to pay bitter penalties. For they shall
be cast out, as it is written, into the outer darkness. True therefore will be the Lord
saying darkly to the Jews, Where I am YE cannot come. 35 The Jews said then among
themselves, Whither will this man go that WE shall not find Him? will He go unto the
dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles? Seest thou herein again the
wretchedness of Jewish reasonings? seest thou the most miserable surmise of grovelling
mind? for they do not say that He will ascend up to Heaven, although they clearly heard,
Yet a little while am I with you, and I go unto Him that sent Me, but they are imagining
the country of the Gentiles, as though among them were He That sent Him, unto Whom He
promised to return. But the people of the Jews is hereby, as it seems, prophesying, albeit
not knowing what it is saying. For moved by some Divine impulse they present Christ to the
country of the Gentiles, in the way of a suspicion thinking of what a little after became
true. For He was in truth about to go unto the Gentiles and teach them, spurning Jerusalem
the ungrateful mother of the Jews.

But note that they do not speak of this simply: for they surmise that He will not only
depart unto the dispersed of the Gentiles, but in their stubbornness add, and will He
teach the Gentiles, that their suspicion may again beget for them a plea of accusal. For
the having intercourse with the dispersed of the Gentiles by reason of going through their
cities or countries, was a common thing among the Jews and unblamed, but to explain the
Law to aliens and to unfold the Divine Mysteries to the uninitiated, was a matter of
accusal and not unblamed by them. And verily God found fault with some who were
indifferent about this, saying by the Prophet Jeremiah, And they read the Law without.
Keenly then do they say that He will teach the Gentiles. casting a slur on Him as readily
transgressing the Law, and from what He had afore wrought on the sabbath day, believing
that to do all things without heed, even if they were counter to the Divine laws, was His
habit and that He thought nothing of it.

37 In the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood and cried saying; If any man
thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. We must search well in this too, what it is the
most wise Evangelist is hinting with some extreme great care, calling the last day of the
feast great, or what it was that induced our Lord Jesus Christ, as of some needful reason
and belonging to the time, to say on it to the Jews, If any man thirst let him come unto
Me and drink. For He might have used other words, such as, I am the Light, I am the Truth.
But turning His explanation to the matters of believing, He hath introduced the word, let
him drink, as something necessary and due to the matters of the feast. And the aim in what
is before us I will endeavour briefly to say.

When therefore God was ordering what belongs to the feast of tabernacles, He says thus
unto Moses, On the fifteenth day of the seventh month a feast of tabernacles unto the
Lord, and ye shall offer whole burnt sacrifices and sacrifices seven days, and the first
day shall be notable holy 5. Then after enjoining besides the mode of the sacrifices, He
added again, And in the fifteenth day of this seventh month, ye shall offer whole burnt
offerings unto the Lord seven days, and the first day a rest and the seventh 6 day a rest.
And on the first day ye shall take you boughs of palm trees and thick branches of a tree
and fruit of a goodly tree and willows and branches of agnus from the brook to rejoice
withal. Having then already in the second book gone through every portion of the above
cited passage and expended much discourse thereon, we will yet again make mention of it
briefly 7. For we said that the feast of tabernacles signified the thrice longed for time
of the resurrection: that the taking boughs and the fruit of a goodly tree, and the other
things besides, meant a recovery of Paradise about to be given us again through Christ.

But that since it is put at the end that one ought to take every thing out of the brook,
and again to rejoice thereof, we said that our Lord Jesus Christ was compared to a brook,
in Whom we shall find all delight and enjoyment in hope, and in Him shall delight us
Divinely and spiritually. And that He is and is called spiritually a Brook, the most wise
Psalmist too will testify to us, saying to God the Father about us, The children of men
shall hope in the shadow of Thy wings: they shall be inebriated with the fatness of Thy
House, and Thou shalt give them drink of the Brook of Thy delights. And the Lord Himself
somewhere in the prophets says, Behold I am inclining to them as a river of peace and as
an overflowing brook. Since then the Law used to call the first and the seventh day of the
great feast notable, the holy Evangelist himself too called it great, not disregarding, it
seems, the accustomed habit of the Jews. There being then in the ordinances about the
feast a mention too of the brook, the Saviour shewing that He is Himself that brook which
was fore-declared in the Law, says, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. For
see how He removes the mind of the Jews away from the types in the letter and transfers
fitly the things in figure, if at all they aid for the truth. For I (He says) am the Brook
which by the Lawgiver was fore-proclaimed in the account of the feast. And if one must
needs take branches of willow and agnus and thick branches of trees from the brook, and
Christ is not strictly a brook, neither yet is the fashion of the feast really in these,
but they will rather be symbols of spiritual things which shall be given to the pious
through Christ.

But seeing that we discussed these things more at large in the second Book, as we have
already said, we will not repeat ourselves, but will rather follow on to the next. 38 He
that believeth in Me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living
water. He shews that vast and ageless is the reward of faith, and says that he who does
not disbelieve shall revel in richest graces from God. For he shall be so replete with the
gifts through the Spirit, as not only to fatten his own mind, but even to be able to
overflow into others' hearts, like the river stream gushing forth the God-given good upon
his neighbour too. This very thing used He to enjoin the holy Apostles, saying, Freely ye
received, freely give. And the wise and holy Paul too himself longing to be effectual unto
this writes, For I long to see you that I may impart some spiritual gift. And one may see
this most exceeding well in both the holy Evangelists and in the Evangelic teachers of the
church, who on those who go to Christ through faith pouring forth most plenteous word of
inspired teaching, spiritually delight them, no more suffering them to thirst after the
knowledge of the truth, with their wise soundings all but crying aloud into the heart of
those who are being instructed. Wherefore the Psalmist rejoicing in spirit called out
concerning them, The rivers lifted up, o Lord, the rivers lifted up their voices. Great
and mighty sounded forth the word of the Saints, and into all the earth went forth their
voice, as it is written, and unto the ends of the world their words.

Such rivers did God, the God and Lord of all, promise to set forth to us, saying by the
Prophet Isaiah, The beasts of the field shall honour Me, the dragons and the daughters of
the owl, because I have given water in the wilderness and rivers in the thirsty ground to
give drink to My chosen generation, My people whom I formed for Myself to shew forth My
praises. Very evident then it is that the Saviour says that out of the belly of him that
believeth shall come forth the grace that through the spirit giveth instruction and
eloquence, whereof Paul too maketh mention saying, To one is given by the Spirit the word
of wisdom. It is good to know besides that the Saviour applied to His own words this
saying, not exactly as it had been before put out by the Divine Scripture 8, but rather
interpreting it according to its meaning. For we find of every one who honoureth and
loveth God that he shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring whose water fails
not. And what He says a little before to the woman of Samaria, this now too He clearly
declares. For there He says, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water
that I shall give him shall be to him a well of water springing up into everlasting life:
and here again carrying up the aim of His discourse to the same meaning, He says, Out of
his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Chapter II. That after the Saviour's Cross at His rising again from the dead the Holy
Ghost took up His abode in us permanently.

39 But this He said of the Spirit Which they that believe on Him should receive, for the
Holy Ghost was not yet, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. The sense of what is
before us demands for itself keen scrutiny and to understand sufficiently the depth of the
mystery will be (and hardly) the achievement of much acumen. For one who revolves in his
mind and looks at each of the holy Prophets, with reason goes first into deepthoughts, How
was the Spirit not, albeit so great a choir of Prophets has been set forth who are found
uttering in the Spirit the Divine mysteries concerning Christ in many words. For we do not
go so far astray from fit thoughts, as to deem that the mind of the saints was bereft of
the Spirit. For there shames us and as of necessity calls us unto the belief that they
were in truth Spirit-clad, the very fact of prophecy and the things found in the holy
writings.

For Samuel saith to Saul, The Spirit of the Lord shall spring upon thee and thou shalt be
turned into another man, and of the blessed Elisha himself is it written, And it came to
pass as the minstrel was playing that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And our Lord
Jesus Christ Himself also testifieth of the blessed David that in the Spirit he speaketh
mysteries. And many things may one readily heap up akin to what have been said, whereby
one may exceeding easily see that the saints are Spirit-clad. But in things so obvious it
were superfluous or even burdensome to weary with long discourse. How the Spirit was not,
we must accurately search; for I think we must deem that the blessed Evangelist speaketh
true. Therefore the very truth, let God the All-wise, know; for we ought not too busily to
apply ourselves to things above us. But as far as we can see by pious reasonings,
something of this sort comes to us. This rational living thing on the earth, I mean man,
was formed from the beginning in incorruption. And the cause of his incorrup-tion and of
his abidance in all virtue was evidently that the Spirit from God indwelt him; for He
breathed upon his face the breath of life, as it is written. But he having from that
ancient deceit turned aside unto sin, then by degrees in succession received much advance
thereto, along with the remaining good things he suffers the loss of the Spirit and so at
length became not only subject to corruption but also prone to all sin. But when the
Framer of all designed (doing exceeding excellently) to gather up all things in Christ,
and willed to recover again the nature of man to its pristine state, He promises along
with the rest to give anew to it the Holy Ghost also, for no otherwise was it possible to
get back to unshaken stability in good things. He defines therefore the time of the
Descent of the Spirit upon us, and promises saying, In those days (those of the Saviour
that is) I will pour out (to wit of My Spirit) upon all flesh. But since the time of this
munificence brought the Only Begotten upon earth with Flesh, that is, made Man of a woman
according to the Holy Scripture, God the Father began to give again the Spirit, and Christ
first received the Spirit as First-fruits of the renewed nature. For John bare record
saying, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven and It abode upon Him.

But He received It, how? for we must needs investigate what is said. Was it then as not
having? we say not so, God forbid. For the Spirit is the Son's Own, and not supplied from
without, as the things from God come to us from without, but inexists in Him naturally
even as in the Father, and through Him proceedeth to the saints, apportioned by the Father
as beseems each. But He is said to have received, in that He became Man, and it beseemed
man to receive. And He, Son of God the Father and begotten of His Essence even before the
Incarnation, yea rather before all ages, nothing shames when God the Father says to Him
when He became Man, My Son art THOU, this day have I begotten Thee. For Him Who God before
ages was begotten of Him, He says that He has this day begotten, that in Him He may
receive us into sonship, for the whole human nature was in Christ, in that He was Man: so
is He said to the Son who hath His Own Spirit, to give It, that we in Him may gain the
Spirit. For this reason therefore does He take hold of the seed of Abraham, as it is
written, and in all things was made like unto His brethren. The Only-Begotten therefore
receives the Holy Ghost not for Himself (for His and in Him and through Him is the Spirit,
as we before said) but, since He, having been made Man, had our whole nature in Himself,
that He might uplift it all transfashioning it unto its olden state.

Besides what has been said, we must consider this too. For we shall see by going through
wise reasonings, and confirmed thereto by words out of the Divine Scripture, that not for
Himself did Christ receive the Spirit, but rather for us in Himself, for all good things
flow through Him into us too. For since our forefather Adam being turned aside by deceit
into disobedience and sin, did not preserve the grace of the Spirit, and thus in him the
whole nature lost at last the God-given good, needs did God the "Word Who knows not
turning, become Man, in order that by receiving as Man He might preserve the Good
permanently to our nature. Of such mysteries will the Divine Psalmist himself too be our
exponent: for thus saith he to the Son, Thou lovedst righteousness and hatedst wrong,
therefore God, Thy God, anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. For
since (says he) Thou ever lovedst righteousness (for Thou art Righteous, O God, never able
to be turned aside therefrom) and hatedst wrong always (for hatred of evil is innate in
Thee of Nature as the Righteous-loving God): therefore hath God the Father anointed Thee,
for Thou Who possessest unchangeable Righteousness as an Excellence of Thine own Nature,
couldest never be moved unto sin which Thou knewest not: and thus, Thou preservedst
undoubtedly in Thyself (in that Thou wert made Man) to the human Nature, the Holy
Anointing from God the Father, i. e., the Spirit.

The Only-Begotten was made therefore Man as we, that in Him first the good things
returning and the grace of the Spirit rooted might be preserved securely to our whole
nature, the Only Begotten and Word of God the Father lending us the Stability of His Own
Nature, because the nature of man had been condemned in Adam as powerless for stability
and falling (and that most easily) into perversion. As then in the turning of the first
the loss of good things passes through unto the whole nature: in the same way I deem in
Him too Who knoweth not turning will the gain of the abidance of the Divine Gifts be
preserved to our whole race. And if we seem to any not to think and speak altogether what
is proper, let him come forward and tell us why the Saviour has been called by the Divine
Scriptures the Second Adam. For in that first one, the human race proceeds from not being
unto being, and having come forth, decayed, because it had broken the Divine Law: in the
Second, Christ, it riseth up again unto a second beginning, re-formed unto newness of life
and unto a return of incorruption, for if ought be in Christ, a new creature, as Paul
saith. There has therefore been given to us the renewing Spirit, that is, the Holy, the
occasion of everlasting life after that Christ was glorified, i.

e., after the Resurrection, when having burst the bonds of death and appeared superior to
all corruption, He lived again having our whole nature in Himself, in that He was Man and
One of us. And if you investigate the reason why not before the resurrection but after it
did the pouring forth of the Spirit take place, you will hear in reply, Christ became then
the firstfruits of the renewed nature, when making none account of the bands of death He
lived again as we have just now said. How then should those be quickened before the
Firstfruit who come after It? For as the plant will not shoot up from the earth, if it be
not surely sprung from its own root (for thence is the beginning to it of growth): so it
were impossible that we having for our root unto incorruption our Lord Jesus Christ,
should be seen springing up before our root. But He shewing that the time of the Descent
of the Spirit upon us was now come, after the revival from the dead, He breathed on His
disciples, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. For then was the time of the renewal indeed
at the doors, yea rather within the doors. And let the searcher after learning again see
whether what we say on these things too be not true. For in the beginning, as said the
Spirit-clad, Moses, to us, the Creator of all, taking dust of the ground and having formed
man, breathed upon his face the breath of life. And what is the breath of life, save
surely the Spirit of Christ Who saith, I am the Resurrection and the Life? But since He
fled away from the human nature, the Spirit which is able to gather us and to form us unto
the Divine Impress, the Saviour gives us this anew bringing us again unto that ancient
Dignity and reforming us unto His own Image. For therefore does Paul too say to certain,
Little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.

Let us consider again (for I will take up again the aim of my discourse) that in the holy
Prophets there was a certain rich shining upon and torch-illumination from the Spirit,
mighty to lead them to the apprehension of things to come and the knowledge of things
hidden: but in those who believe on Christ, we are confident that not torch-illumination
simply from the Spirit, but the Spirit Itself dwells and has His habitation. Whence
rightly are we called temples too of God, though no one of the holy Prophets was ever
called a Divine Temple. Since how shall we understand this, and what shall we say when we
hear our Saviour Christ say, Verily verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of
women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is
least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he? And what is the kingdom of Heaven? The
gift of the Holy Ghost according to that which is said, The kingdom of Heaven is within
you: for the Spirit hath His habitation in us through faith. Seest thou then how He
preferreth before every one born of a woman him that is in the kingdom of Heaven even if
he be below the perfect? And let no one think that we make little of the glory of the
virtue of those Saints or say that those even of least account are superior. For we say
not so; for incomparable is the beauty of their conversation.

But for clear understanding let us briefly interpret what has been said by our Saviour.
Great in truth was the blessed Baptist and through all virtue most renowned, attaining at
last to the very bounds of that righteousness which belongs to us, so that there is nought
above it. Yet did he who was in this case beseech of Christ saying, I have need to be
baptized of Thee and dost THOU come to Me? Seest thou how being perfect, as far as
pertained to men and the born of women, he beseeches to be in a manner new-created and re-
born through the Holy Ghost? seest thou how he yields the greater to those new born, by
his saying that himself has need of this? for if he were in better case not baptized, what
persuaded him to beseech to be baptized? But if he knew that he would be in better case,
when baptism came, how does he not yield the palm to those already baptized? Greater
therefore than John himself does Christ say that he is who is lesser in the kingdom of
Heaven, i. e. the new baptized, who has not as yet attained excellence in work;----in this
only that the blessed Baptist was yet born of a woman, but the other is begotten of God as
it is written, and has become partaker of the Divine Nature, having indwelling in him the
Holy Ghost and already called a temple of God.

But I will recur again to what was before us. The Spirit came to be in the Prophets for
the need's sake of prophesying, He indwelleth now through Christ in believers, having
begun in Him first when He was made Man. For as God He has unceasingly the Spirit Who is
Essentially of His Nature and His own. He is anointed for our sakes and said to receive
the Spirit as Man, not for Himself bringing in the participation of the Divine good
things, but for the nature of man as we have already-taught. When then the Divine
Evangelist says to us, For the Spirit was not yet because that Jesus was not yet
glorified, let us understand him to mean the full and complete habitation in men of the
Holy Ghost. 40, 41 Of the people therefore some when they heard this saying said, Of a
truth this is the Prophet. Others said, This is of a truth 9 the Christ.

Astonishment-stricken are they at His confidence as being God-befitting, and seeing that
His words no longer suit the measures of man, they betake themselves to memory of the Law,
as having already fore-declared of Christ, and saying that a Prophet should be raised up
like to the all-wise Moses who should interpret to Israel the words from God. For so says
God concerning Him to the holy Moses, I will raise them up a Prophet from among their
brethren like unto thee, and will put My words in His mouth and He shall speak unto them
all that I shall command Him. From the quality therefore of His words, and the superiority
of His sayings, do they say that He is already shewn to be Him who was fore-heralded
through the Law. For to whom will it belong to say, If any man thirst, let him come unto
Me and drink, and, He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly shall
flow rivers of living water, save only to God by Nature? and this is the Christ. And even
though the Jews thinking meanly of Him, call Him merely a Prophet, not knowing the
excellence above all of Emmanuel, but meting Him like one of the rest, in this too again
will they be caught applying themselves very much without understanding to the thoughts
contained in the Law: for they deem that the Christ is other than the Prophet of the Law.

And no marvel if the people lack accuracy herein, where the God-opposing multitude of the
haughty. Pharisees is itself found sick with an equal ignorance with that of the people.
For in astonishment at the blessed Baptist it once said, Why baptizest thou then, if THOU
be not the Christ nor Elias neither the Prophet? For whereas two were looked for as to
come, I mean the Prophet of the Law, i. e., Christ, and Elias, they were enquiring about
three, imagining that the Prophet was other than Jesus. Seasonably therefore may one say
of them what is spoken by the Prophet Ezekiel, As the mother, so her daughter; thy
mother's daughter art THOU; for the people is sick with a sickness kin to that of their
rulers. But we must observe that they were already full-prepared to believe, and are
persuaded by the Saviour's words to marvel at Him, yet not having the leading of the
rulers, they are borne along a many-branching path of ideas, some calling Him and now
believing Him to be the Christ, others the Prophet, for the word of a truth annexed, has
an emphasis of reasoning now fully confirmed and bringeth in the idea of faith accepted,

42 Others said, Doth Christ come out of Galilee? said not the Scripture that of the seed
of David and out of Bethlehem the village where David was Christ cometh? No careless
search do the Jews make about Christ, for they were found going through every idea and
through varied ideas gathering the perception of the truth. For having first marvelled
through His Words, and already taken the eminent confidence of His instructions as a guide
to their conjecturing something great about Him, they search besides the Divine Scripture,
thinking to find thence a most unerring conception of Him: for so is its nature. That He
shall be therefore of the seed of the thrice-blessed David and shall be revealed in
Bethlehem of Judaea, they believe, persuaded by the prophecies concerning this. For the
Lord sware in truth unto David, saith somewhere the wise Melodist, and will not reject
Him, Of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. And the Prophet saith, And thou
Bethlehem house of Ephrata, little art thou to be among the thousands of Judah, for out of
thee shall He come forth unto Me to be Ruler of Israel, and His Goings forth from the
beginning, from the days of eternity. But the unassisted mind of the Jews was astray and
failed of Christ merely on account of Nazareth situate in Galilee, wherein was the common
report that our Lord was brought up. For so says one of the holy Evangelists, And He came
to Nazareth where He had been brought up. But they not knowing that He had been born in
Bethlehem of Judaea of the Holy Virgin which was of the seed of David (for she was of the
tribe of Judah by descent), from merely our Lord having been brought up at Nazareth fall
away from the truth and miss of sound reasoning.

43 There was therefore a division among the people because of Him. To no purpose do they
wrangle and are split into diverse opinions, some supposing that He is the Prophet, others
the Christ. And the cause of their division, that they know not Christ, nor understand the
accuracy of the Holy Scriptures: for else would they believing that none other is Jesus
than the Prophet of the Law, have departed from their unseasonable dispute. 44 And some of
them would have taken Him, yet no man laid hands on Him. They who had been sent by the
chief priests and Pharisees to take the Lord, made the dissension of the multitude with
one another a seasonable pretext for their daring deed. For they imagined that they would
with less disputesuffer them to bear Him away, as no longer careful what should befall
Him, but that as having been an occasion of fighting and disturbance, they would be
altogether glad at His being insulted. Yet no man laid hands on Him, not from reverence to
Him, nor yet putting the bridle of piety upon their anger, but checked by His Might alone
(for to its own season did He give to endure His Passion for us).

And hardly is the device of the Jews appeased, restrained by the hindrance from above. For
they might not attempt bloodshed before the time, but must await, ungodly though they be,
the time of ungodliness. 45 The officers came therefore to the chief priests and
Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why did ye not bring Him? They who had been sent to
hunt our Lord, availing to accomplish nought of what had been commanded them took
themselves again to the rulers. And they are troubled exceedingly at the arrival of the
officers, not seeing them bring Him Who was sought. And believing that what they suspected
had already happened, they are smitten with no small fear. For since Christ was marvelled
at for His Signs above nature and His Words above measure, they were wasted with the envy
that was their foster-sister, and were again in no slight fear lest the people of the Jews
deciding that it ought to follow Him, should get clear out of their hand. Supposing that
this had happened (for things suspected are evermore ready to be believed) they eagerly
enquire saying, Why did ye not bring Him? What was it that hindered you (say they) from
bringing to its completion what was pleasing to the rulers? We are more ready to press
forward to learn all, and sometimes not discerning what is sorrowful, in our eager desire
even seize hold on the perception of things we deprecate.

46 The officers answered, Never man spake thus 10. Seasonable in truth is it to say of our
Saviour Christ, Who taketh the wise in their own craftiness. For behold, behold as it is
written, He removed the many-tangled counsel, and shewed the whole nature of affairs
turned contrariwise, on all sides exposing the pollution of the rulers and their
unholiness of life as being feeble and perilous, who refused not to fight against God. For
the chief Priests and Pharisees, fearing lest the people of the Jews should be persuaded
by the Saviour's words, send out officers to take Him, thinking that Christ's being out of
the way would remove their care as to Him. But what they suspected, this they that had
been sent by them returned actually suffering, and what it was like that they would
shudder at hearing, this they learn even against their will, and hear unexpectedly from
those who speak contrary to their mind, Never spake man so.

But since they say these things in excuse for not having brought the Lord, come let us
expand what they said, every way considering the sense of what was spoken. For if we
delight ourselves (say they) in the teaching of the holy Scriptures, if we boast that we
have been instructed in the Divine Laws, if we marvel at wisdom as some unearthly good,
why do we impiously drive away One so wise, and wrong in no small measure Him Whom least
we ought, seeing that we rather owe Him special Love: yea we subject our own heads to the
perils of the Law, thirsting to slay without cause an Innocent and Righteous One. With
such a thought may we suppose that the officers' words were with reason replete. But I
think that looking at Never spake man so. one may say somewhat keener. For they well-nigh
say thus, Not reasonably do ye blame us who could not now bring you Him That was sought:
for how could one compel even against His Will a Man Who in regard to His Words possesseth
Divine Nature? for He spake not as man, nor were His Words those befitting man, but they
belong unmistakeably to Him Who is God by Nature. For let any say, if any (they say) of
the holy Prophets can be found to call himself a brook, or who dared say, If any man
thirst, let him come unto me and drink?

when did the mighty Moses himself say to us, He that believeth on me, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of water of life: these things we heard Him say. He therefore is by
Nature God Who without peril exalts Himself in words above man. But to attempt to hunt as
though by necessity and compulsion Him Who is above the creature, how will one not say
that it is most perilous? or how could He be taken by us against His Will, Who is as far
above us as God above Man? The officers put forth therefore as an evident proof of the
Lord being by Nature God, the words Never spake man so. On all sides is the God-opposer
smitten, and through what he thought to attain his desire, through the very same is he
unwitting slain. 47 There answered them the Pharisees, Have YE too been deceived? It seems
likely that the officers were more strongly Jewish, and ever cleaving to the Pharisees and
sharing their common mind, and ever soused with the words of their rulers, were persuaded
to think the same with them, as being ever with them. But when they came, no ways bringing
the Lord, but astonishment-stricken beyond their expectation, and late and only now
marvelling at Him Whom they ought not to have hated at the beginning, and thinking that
all the rest ought to be persuaded by them: they say with a kind of deep anguish, Have YE
also been deceived? And understand how this saying is replete with a sort of despair of
any hope as regards the people. For as though the rest of the multitude had already been
deceived, so many as were not over-stable, they put forth their fear as to the officers.
For the remaining multitude (says it) of the common people who are not versed in the
sacred Scriptures, nor yet fortified by cleaving to us, let it be granted (if so be) to
them to be joined to Him with inconsiderate impulses, and easily-caught to agree to what
He hath said and done: but whence hath this error been admitted by you too? how have
yourselves also been deceived? what was it drew you off from your love to us, albeit
withered in equal unbelief with us? something like this does the Pharisees' word seem to
tell us.

48, 49 Hath any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him? but this people who
knoweth not the law are cursed. They fall away to their wonted boastfulness, casting
imputation of unlearning on those who marvelled at Jesus as a wonder-worker and as
bringing in things God-befitting, and crown their own heads alone with skill in the law
and knowledge of the holy Scriptures. And because themselves consent not to those who
rightly marvel at these things, they believe that they are full of virtue. And as though
the Law bade them find fault with things worthy of marvel, and cast a perverse judgment on
things that surpass wonder, they plume themselves not a little, demented and of too great
lightness easily cast into all uninstructedness. And whence they the rather ought to
acknowledge Jesus now present, thence are they taken wronging themselves and weighting
their collar, as it is written, for professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
Albeit it had been far better to confess that they knew not the Law, than thinking and
saying that they knew it well, and then dishonouring Him That was proclaimed thereby, to
fall into keener doom and be pierced with woes past escape. For he which knew, (He says)
his Lord's will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes, but he that knew not
and did not, shall be beaten with few stripes.

Therefore in confessing that they know the Law, themselves full well accuse their own
unbelief, and laugh at the multitude as unlearned and therefore caught by our Saviour's
miracles, then unable to dissuadethem through the declarations of the Law, they boastfully
insult, calling them uninstructed who were ready to understand. For this is ever the wont
of more ignorant teachers who having nought to say of what they are asked, repel by anger
the minuteness of enquirers. And they say that they who believe are cursed, while
themselves would more rightly be persuaded to say this of their own selves. For it better
befits the unbeliever to be accursed, seeing that the Law declares clearly of the Prophet
our Saviour Christ, And it shall be whosoever will not hearken unto the words which that
Prophet shall speak in My Name, that soul shall be destroyed from among his people. 50, 51
Nicodemus saith unto them, he who came to him aforetime 11, being one of them, Doth our
law judge a man before it heareth him and know what he doeth?

One of the rulers is Nicodemus, and he is numbered among those who had authority, yet not
wholly unbelieving nor altogether vying with their folly, but already pricked, not indeed
having his love to Christ yet free, yet to some degree feeling shame at the convictions of
his conscience. For that he came to Him by night, and affirmed that he knew well that He
was a teacher come from God and that no one could do such signs, except he had God with
him, I think that all have learnt, the blessed Evangelist having clearly said it at the
beginning. He therefore marvelling at Jesus along with the multitudes, is somewhat smitten
at being styled along with them cursed. For consciousness 12 is quick at persuading not to
be quiet in things contrary to one. As therefore aggrieved hereat, he returns upon them
equal insult, not yet openly, but putting forth against them his indignation in words
which have their strength out of the Law, and not in unveiled openness. For whereas the
Law (he says) tells judges on each question before them, And thou shalt enquire diligently
with exactness and clearness, whether it be so; ye judged recklessly those who had not
been yet called to trial, and before hearing ought of them, ye bring against them so hasty
a sentence. It is YE therefore (he says) who are more truly cursed, despising the Law.

For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the Law to do them. For in that he is indignant at the Pharisees for
condemning the people for only marvelling at Jesus, it is clear that he agrees with those
who do believe. For being still sick of an harmful shame, and not yet mingling boldness
with his zeal, he permits the faith that is in him to be not seen uncovered, but casting
about it dissimulation like a darksome cloak, he as yet conceals that he is on Christ's
side; yet is he sick with a grievous sickness. For we ought to believe fearlessly,
glorying rather than ashamed, practising a transparent openness, and refusing slave-
befitting dissimulation, for therefore did the wise Paul declare that he that rightly
divideth the word of truth ought to be a workman unashamed, and himself too shewing the
virtue that shone forth in himself somewhere says, For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for
it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Keen therefore (for I
will resume again what I was saying) is Nicodemus' speech: for why did himself alone speak
and withstand the words of the Pharisees, albeit their bloody confederacy had many others
in it? But it is clear to every one, that since he was numbered among those who marvelled
at Christ) he is shewing that they are accursed in their turn who lay a curse upon those
whom they least ought. 52 They answered and said unto him, Art THOU too of Galilee? search
and see that out of Galilee hath not arisen a prophet.

Being a Jew (it says) and home-born, why dost thou feign to have no knowledge of the
Galileans, and art strangely co-ignorant of our matters with those who are absolutely
ignorant? and being most conversant with the most sacred Scriptures, and versed in tho
appointments of the Law, whence knewest thou not (he says) that it is not possible to look
for a Prophet out of the Galilaeans? This then is the aim of the Pharisees' words. But we
must notice this again: they spurn the multitudes as knowing nought of the things they
ought to have had accurate knowledge of, and finding fault with their extreme want of
learning, and loathing them and haughtily styling them uninstructed, themselves are caught
sick of yet worse, and no wise differing from their inexperience. For those on receiving
the miracles done through Christ, and gathering little by little faith in Him, at one time
said, Christ when He cometh, will He do more miracles than these which this man. hath
done? at another time drawn off from so right an opinion, they missed only from Nazareth
being situate in Galilee wherein the Divine Scripture proclaims that the Lord was brought
up, and they therefore said, Doth Christ come out of Galilee? said not the Scripture that
of the seed of David and out of Bethlehem the village where David was, Christ cometh? But
these loudly laughing at the ill-instructedness of the people and calling them cursed
therefore, were in no superiority to their ignorance. For see they too say, Search and see
that out of Galilee hath not arisen a prophet.

But one may with reason moved against them say, O ye who yield to none the palm in ill-
instructedness, ye who have missed and are hard, where is the boast of your pride, a
footprint of wisdom in you? where the understanding that belongs to those learned in the
Law? for we ought not to doubt of our Saviour Christ, but to believe, nothing hesitating,
God the Father saying of Him to holy Moses, A Prophet will I raise them up from among
their brethren like unto thee. From among their brethren, how must it not surely mean of
the Jews and of Israel? Verily ye shall not need accusers from without, yourselves of
yourselves shall be convicted of being without understanding. For whereas our Saviour
Christ teacheth and openly saith, I have come down from heaven not to do Mine own will but
the will of Him That sent Me, ye were then thinking bitter things, and full besides of no
slight wrath, ye said again, Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother
WE know? how saith He now, I have come down from heaven? Since then thou confessedst in
plain words that thou knewest exactly His father and mother, thou knewest surely that He
is of the root of Israel: how then saidst thou that He was a Galilaean Who was born of
Jews? how an alien Who was of Israel?

for not surely the having been brought up in Galilee, and having spent some time there,
removes him that is of Israel from his race, since nought would hinder him that is sprung
of Galilaeans from being a Jew by race if he should come into the land of the Jews. Vain
therefore is it for the Pharisees wise in their own conceits to say of Christ our Saviour,
that out of Galilee hath not arisen a Prophet. For they should rather have enquired how it
was that He Who was of Jewish parents came to be a Galilaean, and so at length to consider
His bringing up at Nazareth, and not on this account stray away from believing. But we
must observe again that no wise able to find fault with His miracles, albeit whetted to
the uttermost hostility, they gainsay from merely His country, since He was (according to
their surmise) from Galilee. Their suspicion thence being therefore loosed, not doubtful
at length would have been their faith, if they had been wise 13. viii. 12 Again therefore
spake Jesus unto them, saying, I am the Light of the world. As we said that Jesus had made
His Discourse in accordance with what was written of the feast, when at its last day He
was standing crying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, because the oracle
of Moses had made mention of the brook: so now too does He make His explanation most
seasonable, and due to the nature of things. For since He saw that the teachers were
partners in folly with the multitudes and that the laughers were sick of the like with
them they laughed at, drenched (so to speak) all of them in one night of unlearning and
seeking to get hold of His Mystery yet finding nought at all, He brings forward the reason
of tho want of understanding that is in them, crying, I am the Light of the world. Ye (He
says) going through the whole holy Scripture and thinking to test the things spoken of Me
through the Prophets, are far astray of the way of Life. And no marvel: for He is not in
you Who revealeth mysteries and illumineth the whole world, and like a sun shineth into
the hearts of them that receive Him. And needs must he who has not within him the Divine
and spiritual Light surely walk in darkness and stumble on many absurdities therefrom.

But that the Only-Begotten is by Nature Light, as beaming forth from God the Father Who is
by Nature Light, we have shewn at great length in the first book, on the words, He was the
Very Light. But we must note again that He says that He is the Light not specially or
solely of them of Israel, but of all the world. And herein He tells a thing most true: for
He says that He it is Who infused into all the nature the light of understanding, and like
some deposit of seed sowed the understanding befitting man in every one who is called into
being, according to what is said of Him, He was the Very Light Which lighteth every man
that cometh into the world. But I think, that there is something keen deep buried in the
words. For if what He had said were not replete with something of this kind, He would have
merely said, I am the Light. But since He hath added, Of the world, I think that now too
He wills something of this sort to be hinted. God was known in Judaea alone, in Israel
alone was His Name great; and all the rest of the earth a deep darkness filled, not one of
those that were in the world possessing the Divine and heavenly Light, save only Israel.

But as then while all the nations in this world were together banished from the knowledge
of God, and lay as it were in some rank of their own, the Lord's portion was His people,
Israel the cord of His inheritance: so again when the spiritual sun was transferred unto
the whole world, and the light taken away from them of Israel and removed unto the
Gentiles, Israel was found to be external to all: for while they waited for light darkness
came to them, as it is written, awaiting brightness, they walked in gloom. Not in vain
then saith the Saviour when communing with the Pharisees, I am the Light of the world, for
He threatens well that He will remove from Israel and will transfer the grace unto the
whole world, and will spread forth the ray of Divine knowledge at last upon others. But we
must observe that although by His hearers He was seen as Man and with flesh, He does not
say, In Me is the Light, but, I am the Light, that none divide Christ after the Economy of
the Incarnation into a pair of sons: for One Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul saith, both before
Flesh and with Flesh, and One and Alone in Verity Son is the Word of God the Father, even
when He was made Man, not counted apart from the Temple that was taken of a woman: for His
Own is the Body, and to wholly sever after the Incarnation, as regards Sonship, is not
free from blasphemy. But we must know that though we say that the Word of God was made
Flesh, we do not say that He was clad in flesh alone, but in the word flesh we signify the
whole man.

He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He is
again persuading them on all sides to aim at hunting after what is profitable, and to
desire rather to be led by His appointments, than to choose to follow their own unlearning
and bereave themselves of everlasting life. He shews how great shall be the profit to
those who are obedient to Him, seeing He is by Nature Good and willeth all men to be saved
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. But since He knew as God that they would
gainsay, He fashions His speech after an elder image of things and from what had befallen
their ancestors He declares plainly that the desire to follow Him will be to their great
profit. It was written then of them of Israel, that in the daytime also He led them with a
cloud and all the night with a light of fire. For when they were crossing the wide desert,
hasting unto the Land of promise, a cloud was suspended over them like a roof in the day
driving off the sun's flame, by Divine Counsel that is: by night a pillar of fire
contending with the darkness and marking out to the travellers their un-erring road did
lead them. For just as they who at that time followed the guiding and conducting fire,
escaped straying, and were borne straight forward along their right and holy ground,
recking nought of night or darkness: so he that followeth Me, i.

e., who goeth in the track of My teachings, shall in no wise be in the dark, but shall
gain the light of life, that is, the revelation of My mysteries able to lead him by the
hand unto everlasting life. The Lord being a skillful workman in His speech, in no wise
provokes the Pharisees, who rage and rave not a little, by telling them more openly that
they shall both abide in the dark and shall die in their unbelief: but in other guise does
He tell them this, transferring unto the better the force of His speech. For whereby He
here promises that he who has chosen to follow Him shall have the light of life, by this
same does He shew covertly, that by refusing to follow they shall have dearth of that
light which availeth to recover them unto life. For is it not clear to all and
unhesitatingly to be received, that to those who flee what cheers, the reverse:must needs
befall? True then was the word of our Saviour and undoubted that which was contrived
through His skill.

13 The Pharisees therefore said, Thou bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not true.
Dull and slow is the Pharisee, and most hardly led unto the power of seeing the Godhead of
the Lord: he errs again by reason of the flesh, and imagines nought beyond what he sees.
For while seeing that He uses utterances beyond man and hearing words most God-befitting,
he yet conceives of bare man, not looking to the illustriousness of the Godhead nor
opening the eye of his understanding to look at Emmanuel. For to whom will it belong to
say, I am the light of the world, save to One and Alone God That is by Nature? who of the
holy Prophets dared to say such a word? what angel ever burst forth such a word? let them
traverse the whole God-inspired Scripture and search into the sacred and Divine Word, and
shew us this. But they making no account of what necessarily follows, deem that they ought
to contradict, and advance hotly to what alone they know accurately, accusal out of love
of fault-finding, For they depreciate Him as not being the Light of the world, accusing
the things spoken by Him, affirming that not true is His record. For they are wise to do
evil, but to do good they have no knowledge, and suppose that they can overturn and that
by chicanery His record, attempting to invalidate it from just merely our own customary
ways, not by the commands of the Law.

For where does the Law (let them tell us) say that a man's testimony of himself is
invalid? For wearisome I suppose and unendurable at times is a person's witnessing
excellences to himself: and verily the most wise compiler of Proverbs saith, Let thy
neighbour praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips. Yet not
altogether false is that which is said by any of himself. For let any of the Pharisees
come forward, and let him tell us what we shall do when the blessed Samuel testifies most
excellent things to his own self. For he is somewhere found to be making his defence to
those of Israel and saying, The Lord is witness against you and His anointed is witness
this day that ye have not found ought in my hands. But if the Law forbad any one to
witness to himself, how (tell me) came Samuel to set it at nought, albeit the Divine
Scripture saith of him, Holy 14 was Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among
them that call upon His name, they called upon the Lord and He answered them, in the
pillar of the cloud did He speak unto them, they kept His testimonies and the ordinances
that He gave them. Seest thou how he was conjoined with Moses as having virtue
commensurate with him, and is witnessed to by the Spirit as an accurate keeper of the Law?
How then did he trangress the Law by witnessing to himself, will one say?

But he did not trangress it; for he is witnessed to as keeping it, and he hath witnessed
to himself. The Law then forbids to none to witness to himself. And moreover what shall we
say, when we see the blessed David saying, O Lord my God, if I did this, if I recompensed
those that recompensed me evil? yea moreover the blessed Jeremy saith, O Lord God of
hosts, I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, but was circumspect because of Thy Hand:
and the most wise Paul again, though taught according to the perfect manner of the law of
the fathers, as himself too testified, openly cries out, For I am conscious of nought of
myself. Let the Pharisee therefore say again of each of these, Thou bearest record of
thyself, thy record is not true, even though to those who refuse not to chide the very
Lord of all, the behaving most ill to the rest is a matter of course. But this we say,
resuming again what we were saying, that the contradiction of the Pharisees is no
necessary one taken out of the ordinances of the Law, but made only out of what prevails
in common custom, and from the habit not seeming to be one befitting good people. And
their contradiction out of the Law is rather railing, to steal away those whoare already
marvelling at Him and are persuaded that they ought to believe. For they revile Him as not
true, and damaging the credit of what He just now said, the wretched ones draw forth the
destruction of blasphemy upon their own heads.

14 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I hear record of Myself, My record is true,
because I know whence I came and whither I go. On Christ saying that He is what He is by
Nature and truly (for He openly declared, I am the Light of the world) the multitude of
the Pharisees unrecking of danger deemed that He spake falsely. For in their exceeding
folly they knew not that when some set forth their own nature and tell what is essentially
inherent in them, we shall not, if we think aright, suppose that they do so out of
boasting, nor shall we say that they are bent on hunting vain-glory, but rather that they
declare what they really are. As for example we say that when an angel pointing out his
own nature says, I am an angel; when a man shewing what he is says, I am a man: yea, if
one should clothe with voice the sun, and it teaching the property of its nature should
say, I hasting around the circuit of the heaven, let forth bright light to those on the
earth:----one would not reasonably suppose, that it were witnessing to itself things not
its, but what it really was by nature. In the same way (I deem) as to our Saviour Christ
too, even though He says that He is the Light, He will say the truth, and will be found
boasting not less than they in things external to Him.

The many therefore living in ill-instructedness, not understanding Emmanuel, suppose that
He is vain-glorious and attack Him as though one of us, and have not shuddered to say, Thy
record is not true, to Him Who cannot lie, for guile was not found in His Mouth, as it is
written. But it behoved Him to lead by the hand them who were astray, having fallen away
exceedingly from the truth, and gone away from right reasoning, and in all forbearance to
tell them that they had missed of what was becoming, unholily ascribing the love of even
lying to Him Who is from above and begotten of God the Father. For true (He says) is My
record, even though I hear record of Myself. For in men is sometimes seen the desire from
self-love of witnessing things most excellent to themselves, even though they have them
not (for prone to ill is their nature); but to Me (He says) belongs not the power of being
sick of the same ills as those on the earth. For I know whence I am, Light of Light and
Very God of Very God the Father, having the Nature that is beyond the reach of infirmity.
For even though (He says) I became Man because of My Love for men, yet not on this account
shall I be deemed bereft of God-befitting Dignity, but I remain what I am by Nature, God.
A clear proof of this, is My knowing whither I go:

for I shall ascend unto the heavens to the Father of Whom I am. This I suppose one would
say pertained not to a man as we are, but to Him Who is by Nature God even though He
became Man. Hence the words I know whence I am, indicates that the Son is by Nature of the
Father, and the whither I go, a demonstration of God-befitting Authority (for He will
ascend as God, above the heavens, as Paul saith); yet hath it some fit threat, even if not
altogether clear, against the impiety of the Jews. For that He shall full soon depart
altogether from their race, does He here evidently say; and leaving them in dearth of the
Divine Light, will prepare them for being in ignorance and deep darkness, as He shews them
elsewhere more clearly: for He says, While ye have the Light, walk in the light lest
darkness come upon you.

15 YE judge after the flesh, I judge no man. We shall again find the Lord of all using
gentleness most worthy of love; for not with equal wrath does He repay those who blaspheme
Him, albeit knowing that they ought to participate in bitter punishment: but imitating the
more gentle of physicians, He will (I deem) in this too be rightly marvelled at. For they
often make no account of the slights of the sick, but forbearing most patiently make their
skill helpful to them, curing what gives them pain, and railed at at times, they
explaining what is for the good of health persuade them to be diligent in what is for
their good and make known the cause of their sickness. And the Lord Jesus Christ both
bears with those who blaspheme Him and reviled He does them good, He binds up the wounds
of them who insult Him: yea and most clearly counts up to them the causes of their
unbelief in Him, whence their sickness befell them. For YE (He says) judge after the
flesh, i. e., ye err, and with great reason, since ye look to this flesh alone, albeit ye
ought far rather to give heed to the magnificence of the deeds: believing that I am such
an one as you because I am clothed in your flesh, ye have been greatly deceived, and not
contemplating the deep mystery of the Economy with Flesh, ye put forth a most ill-advised
judgment against Me, saying that the Truth lies. But I shall put off judging you until
another time, for God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the
world might be saved.

I think then that the question before us has been solved not amiss: but one may going
through other thoughts also make the sense clear as far as we are able. YE (He says) judge
after the flesh, I judge no man. Having nought at all (He says) to find fault with and not
able to reasonably blame My Wonder-workings, ye depreciate them only on account of the
flesh, and because I am seen a Man as you, ye impiously class Me as nothing. But I (He
says) do not for this condemn you; for not because ye are men by nature, shall I therefore
esteem you as nothing nor for this shall ye render account to the Judge. I find not fault
with the nature, I condemn not Mine Own creation, I say not that there is any
transgression in man from his being man. Yet ye by reason of the flesh esteem Me as
nought, and for this did ye condemn Me: but I have not so reckoned of you, but knowing
that a great and honourable thing is man even though he be made of earth, albeit Very God
and in the Form of the Father Who begat Me, I humbled Myself taking servant's form and
made Man: in respect of which alone am I now condemned by you, albeit Myself condemning no
man for this. And if I judge My judgment is just and true because I am not alone but I and
the Father that sent Me.

"Doth then," will haply one say of those who think contrary to the doctrines of the
Church, "the Son know how to judge aright, only for this reason, that the Father is with
Him when He does so? This being so (and that in truth) what yet hinders from saying that
the Son is in a way directed unto uprightness through the Will of the Father, not
possessing this in perfectness, nor able of Himself to act irreproachably?" What then
shall WE too respond to their words? Impious, sirs, is your idea and most befitting Jewish
folly alone, for not as though not possessing the power of judging rightly of Himself,
does the Son so speak; for the Psalmist will testify to Him saying in the Spirit, God is a
Righteous Judge. And that none other save He is Judge, Himself will be our witness, saying
in the Gospels, For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment
unto the Son. Hath then God the Father given the judgment to one who knoweth not to judge
rightly? But any one (I suppose) would attribute to the uttermost folly so to deem of the
Righteousness of the Father, i. e. the Son. For the Father knoweth His own Offspring and
gave Him judgment, and by giving it, clearly testifies His Power to judge aright. It is
therefore most manifest, that not as being impotent to judge justly does He say that the
Father co-judges with Him, but the words are replete with some thoughts akin to those
above and in sequence.

What then He wishes to make known, we will clearly say. YE (He says) O leaders and
teachers of the Jews, made an evil and most unjust judgment against Me: for by reason of
only the flesh, ye deem ye ought to esteem Me as nothing, although I am by Nature God. But
I when I begin to judge of you, shall not put forth such a judgment against you, for not
because ye are men by nature, shall I therefore deem it fit to condemn you: but having the
Father in all things Co-willer and Co-judge, I condemn you justly. And why? Ye did not
receive Him Who cometh from Heaven, ye have not ceased to insult Him That was sent to you
from the Father, ye depreciated Me Who came for the salvation of all, for merely the
flesh's sake, spurning far the Law which was ever dear to you. For where (tell me) doth
Moses bid you condemn any because he was a man by nature? YE therefore judge and reckon
unjustly: for ye have not the Law as your Co-willer herein, but by yourselves are bold to
every daring deed, having not the inspiration of the Divine will: but I not so, for having
in Myself the Father as My Assessor and Co-approver in all things that concern you, I
judge most justly in giving up to desolation your whole country, and burying it in the
misfortunes of war, yea in expelling from the very kingdom of Heaven those who have so
raged against Him who willeth to save them, and who for this cause came in man's form.

17, 18 And in your Law it is written that the testimony of two men is true: I am one that
bear witness of Myself and the Father too That sent Me beareth witness of Me. Having said
that God the Father will co-judge and co-condemn those who blaspheme against Him, He
taketh the pair of Persons unto something else that is profitable. For I (He says) will
not refuse to tell you what I am by Nature. For I am the Light of the world. And I would
not seem to any to be fond of boasting: for not in external endowments but in those that
accrue to Me Essentially do I glory. But if in saying this, I seem to you not competent to
receive from you approval for truth, because I am alone and have witnessed to Myself, I
will take to Me God the Father co-working and co-witnessing to My Endowments. For He co-
works with Me (He says) as ye see, and co-operates. For as far as regards human nature, I
should not do any thing at all, if I possessed not the being God by Nature: as far as
regards My being of the Father, and having in Myself the Father, I confess that I can
accomplish all things, and am witnessed to by the Nature of Him who begat Me: for as
having Him in Myself by means of Sameness of Nature, I come to the achieving of all things
unhindered.

For our Lord Jesus Christ hath of the Divine Nature all-creative Power as God even though
He became Man, and He is witnessed to by the Father, having Him Co-worker in all things
according as is said by Him, Of Myself I do nothing, but the Father that dwelleth in Me,
Himself doeth the works. But we deem that the Father co-works with the Son, not as
introducing some other power of His own for the achievement of the things done, to one who
was wanting in power (for if we thus conceive, we shall concede that both the Power of the
Father and that of the Son are surely imperfect, if ought of miracle be wrought by Them
Both, as though One were not sufficient for the need) but conceiving of, and taking the
words in more pious wise, we shall say that since there is in Father and Son One Godhead,
and the un-differing Authority and Power of the Same Nature, the works of the Son will
surely be those of God the Father, those again of God the Father, the works of the Son.

But He saith, I do nothing of Myself, not as though a servant or under-worker, or in
position of a learner, and waiting to be commanded by the Father, or instructed in order
to accomplish wonders: but rather signifying with all precision, that having sprung of the
Essence of God the Father, and like Light produced Ineffably and without beginning from
His Innermost Bosom and Eternally co-with Him, and conceived of and being the Image and
Impress of His Person, He hath the same Mind so to speak with Him, and the same energy in
everything. For that He might clearly teach that He is Co-willer in all things with Him
Who begat Him, He says, I do nothing of Myself. Just as though He said, I am not turned
out to any private will of My own, which is not in God the Father. Whatever the Nature of
the Father wills and judges, this same is surely in Me too, since I beamed forth of His
Bosom, and am the Very Fruit of His Essence.

Hard then are these things to explain, and that which is unattainable by the very
understanding may not without difficulty be unfolded through the tongue: nevertheless
bringing such things as far as in us lays to a pious view,we shall gain to ourselves
heavenly reward, and thus preserve our mind unwounded and unmoved by turnings aside unto
ought else. But we must note that the Saviour adding and crying to the Jews, And in your
Law is it written, persuades the Pharisees as of necessity to admit the pair of Persons.
For I (He says) bear witness of Myself, and the Father will be with Me herein: will
therefore the pair of witnesses confirmed by the book of the Law, be accepted by you, or
will ye again, looking only to your envy at Me, not keep even the Law that ye admire? 19
They said therefore unto Him, Where is Thy Father?

In this too most especially may one, I deem, and with good reason cry out against the
stolidity of the Jews, uttering that word of the Prophet, Behold O foolish people and
without heart. For after much discourse and often with them from our Saviour Christ, Who
over and over makes mention of God the Father in Heaven, the wretched ones sink down into
so great folly as to dare to say, Where is Thy Father? For they think nought at all of Him
Who is His God and Father in the Heavens, but look round at and seek for Joseph, believing
him to be Christ's father and no otherwise. Thou seest then how they have been with reason
called a people verily foolish and heartless: for able not so much as to raise the eye of
their understanding above things of earth, they shew that true it is which was said of
them, Let their eyes be darkened that they see not, and bow Thou down their back alway.
For of irrational creatures is the back bowed, for they have this form from nature, and
there is nothing of uprightness in them. And the mind of the Jews has become in some way
like the beasts and has declined ever downwards, seeing nothing of heavenly things. For
shall we not by the very fact itself, instructed aright in this matter, think and judge
truly concerning them? for if they had at all thought of God the Father in Heaven, how
would they have sought in place the Unembodied?

how (tell me) would they, saying most unadvisedly of God Who filleth all things, Where is
He, not fight with the whole Divine Scripture, albeit the Divine-speaking Psalmist, going
through (as he was able) his words about God, and attributing to Him the power of filling
all things, says, Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, and from Thy Presence whither shall
I flee? if I ascend up into heaven, THOU art there, if I go down to hell, behold Thou, if
I take my wings at morning and depart unto the uttermost parts of the sea, even there
shall Thy Hand lead me and Thy Right Hand shall hold me. Yea and God Himself Who is over
all, shewing clearly that He possesseth not nature circumscribed by space, saith to those
so unholy Jews, Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? what house will ye build
Me, or what the place of My rest? Heaven is My Throne and earth My footstool. One may
therefore see the Jews in all things without understanding, when they say to the Saviour
Christ, Where is Thy Father? except they say this of His reputed father after the flesh,
in this too doting.

But it is likely that the words of the Jews had some other deep meaning. For since they
thought that the holy Virgin had committed adultery before marriage, therefore they rail
most bitterly against Christ as not even knowing from whom He is, saying, Where is Thy
father? doting. Jesus answered, Neither Me do ye know nor My Father, if ye had known Me,
ye should have known My Father also. True is the word and in no respect can it be accused
of lying. For they who indeed suppose Christ to be of Joseph, or of fornication, and who
know not that the Word beamed forth of God the Father, how will they not with reason hear,
Neither Me do ye know nor My Father? For if they had known the Word that beamed forth of
God the Father, and was for our sakes made in the flesh, according to the Divine
Scripture, they would have known Him too Who begat Him. For most accurate knowledge of the
Father is through the Son implanted in the understanding of the more zealous after
learning, as He too affirmed, saying unto God the Father, I manifested Thy Name to the
men, and again, Thy knowledge was made marvellous by Me. For since we know the Son, we
know by Him Him Who begat Him. For through Both is brought in the perception of the Other:
and when the Father is mentioned, the memory of His Offspring surely comes in with it, and
again with the signification of the Son, the Name of Him Who begat Him comes in too. For
therefore is the Son a Door (so to speak) and way leading unto the knowledge of the
Father. And so does He say, No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. For we must needs
first learn (as is possible) what the Son is by Nature; and so, as from Image and most
accurate Impress, understand well the Archetype.

For in the Son is the Father seen, and in the Nature of His own Offspring as in a mirror,
is He Perfectly seen. But if this be true, as it is true, let the God-opposing Arian
blush. For needs must the Impress of His Essence be in every way and manner like to Him,
lest ought else than what the Father is, be supposed to be perfectly beaming forth in the
Son. And if He love to be known in the Son and to shine forth in Him, He knows (I suppose)
of a surety that He is Consubstantial too, and in nothing whatever inferior to His Own
inherent Glory: for He would not have chosen to be believed to be in lesser case than He
is by Nature. And since He loves and has willed this, how must we not needs now confess
that the Son is every way like the Father, in order that through Him we may know Him also
That begat Him, as we have already said, ascending aright from the Image to the Archetype,
and be able to have an unblameable conception of the Holy Trinity?

Thus then he who knoweth the Son, knoweth the Father too. But consider how the Lord after
having said the truth to the Jews, interweaves some other device also in His speech; for
having said clearly, Neither Me do ye know nor My Father, He draws gently off the mind of
the Jews, that they should not think only humanly of Him, nor suppose that He is in truth
the son of Joseph who was taken economically but should rather seek and enquire Who is the
Word in Flesh, Who His Father by Nature.

Chapter III. That no work of Jewish might was the Suffering on the Cross, nor did Christ
die from the tyranny of any, but Himself of His own will suffered this for us that He
might save all.

20 These words spake He in the Treasury as He taught in the Temple, and no man laid hands
on Him, because His hour had not yet come. The most wise Evangelist profitably makes plea
in behalf of the saving Passion and shews that the Death on the Cross was not of human
necessity, nor did Jesus suffer death against His will from the tyranny of another, but
rather did offer Himself for us a spotless Sacrifice to God the Father by reason of His
inherent love for us. For since He must needs suffer (since thus would the imported
corruption and sin and death be overturned), He hath given Himself a Ransom for the life
of all. What then will be found in the words before us making for the saving Passion, and
what of profit the aim of the thoughts therein is replete with, do thou again hear.For
Christ (he says) was speaking these words not outside of Jerusalem, nor in any city of
those round about, nor yet in a more insignificant town or village of Judaea, for He was
standing by the very treasury, i. e., in the midst of the very courts in the Temple itself
was He making His Discourse on these matters. But the Pharisees, albeit deeply cut to the
heart and grieved exceedingly at what was said by Him, laid not hands upon Him, when it
was in their power most easily to do this; for He was, as I said, within the meshes. What
then was it that persuaded to be quiet even against their will, those who are raging like
fierce beasts? what was it that checked their anger? how was the bloodthirsty heart of the
Pharisees charmed?

Not yet, he says, had His hour come, that is, not yet was the time of His Death at hand,
by no other hand marked out for the Saviour Christ, nor yet cast upon Him by fate (as the
lying fables of the Greeks say) or by the hour (after their babbling speech), but rather
marked out by Him according to the good pleasure of God the Father. For being God by
Nature and Very and unknowing to miss of what was fit, full well did He know how long time
it was right to live in Flesh with those on the earth, and when again to depart to heaven,
having destroyed death by the death of His own Flesh. For that not by the tyranny of any,
was death brought upon Him That is by Nature Life, is I suppose clear to all who are wise:
for how should the bonds of death prevail over the Life by Nature? and the Lord Himself
somewhere testifieth saying, No man taketh My life from Me, I lay it down of Myself: I
have power to lay it down, and again I have power to take it. For if the time in which He
must surely suffer death, were laid down as of necessity by some other, how should we find
it in His own power to lay down that Life? for it would have been taken even against His
will, if His Passion were not in His own power.

But if He lays it down of Himself, we shall see the Passion to be not in the Power of any
other but in His own Will. For then did He permit to Jewish folly to go through to its own
end, when He saw that the fit time for His Death had now come. Let not then the haughty
Pharisee brag of his own daring deeds, nor puffed up with exceeding ill-counsel say, If
Christ were by Nature God, how came He not to be without my meshes? how escaped He not my
hands? for he will hear in reply from those who love Him, Not thy meshes, O sir,
prevailed, for it were nought hard for God supreme over all to crush thy snare, and pass
forth of the net of thy impiety: but the Suffering was the salvation of the world, the
Passion the undoing of death, the Mighty Cross the overthrow of sin and corruption. This
He knowing as God, submitted Himself to thy unholy daring. For what, tell me, was the
hindrance to thy enfolding Him then especially when thou wert gnashing thy teeth at Him,
as He was teaching by the very treasury? and if it was the work of thy might to overcome
Christ, why didst thou not make Him a prisoner then? But thou stoodst in anger unmitigated
to bloodshed all revealed, yet doing nought of the things thou wouldest. For not yet did
He will to suffer, Who was persuaded by thy mad folly, as by bits which may not be
snapped. These things may one with reason opposing to the vain talk of the Jews, shame
them even against their will, into not bragging of what they least ought.

And one may well admire the holy Evangelist reasonably shewing, and clearly saying that
the Saviour was teaching these things in the temple by the Treasury and no man laid hands
on Him: for he was witnessing so to speak to Christ's own words, which He said to the Jews
when they were at hand to take Him, As against' a robber are ye come out with swords and
staves for to take Me? daily did I sit teaching in the temple and ye laid no hold on Me.
And one would not (I suppose) say, if one thought rationally, that He was blaming the
Jews, that they had not brought on His Passion untimely, nor yet that letting slip the
right time, they were advancing too slowly to shed blood: but rather He is convicting
them, as unwisely supposing that they should have prevailed even against His will, and
could have seized by force Him who may not suffer except He will. For I was sitting
teaching in the temple and ye laid no hold on Me, for then I willed it not, nor would ye
now avail to do this, except I willingly subjected Myself to your hands. Hence one may on
all sides see, that no work was it of Jewish might to put our Lord to death; but to their
unholy daring may one attribute the attempt, to our Saviour Christ the will to suffer for
all, that He might free all and, having bought them with His own Blood, present them to
God the Father.

For God, as Paul saith, was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, and in all
forgiveness restoring that which had fallen away from friendship with Him, unto what it
was in the beginning. 21 He said therefore unto them again, I go My way, and ye shall seek
Me and shall die in your sins. That we must needs take hold of the present time for
whatever one may receive profit from to oneself, does Christ herein well declare unto us.
For to be too late in what is good and to take after-counsel for what is profitable,
clearly brings no gain but ministers wailing befitting the neglect. Our Lord therefore
being good and gracious, as it is written, both bears with those who dishonour Him and
aids those who insult Him and is found as God superior to all the littleness of man. Yet
does He for their good threaten to depart from them, and says plainly I go My way, that He
may implant in them a more resolved mind, and that they considering that they ought not to
leave their Redeemer when present frustrate of His work, He may whet them to pass on to
the faith and may make them now at length more ready unto obedience. And having cried out,
I go My way, and threatened departure from the whole nation, He subjoined economically the
damage therefrom ensuing unto them. For (He says) Ye shall die in your sins; and we shall
see the nature of the thing bringing in the truth of what is said. For they who did not at
all receive Him Who came to us from Heaven that He might justify all through faith, how
shall they not beyond all contradiction die in their sins, and not receiving Him Who can
cleanse them, how will they not have lasting defilement from their impiety?

For to die unredeemed, yet laden with the weight of sin, to whom is it any doubt where
this will conduct the soul of man? For deep Hades will, I deem, receive such an one, and
he will continue in great darkness, yea he will inhabit fire and flames, with reason
numbered among those of whom it has been said by Prophet's voice, Their worm shall not die
neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be for a sight to all flesh. Whereof
that they may escape the trial, Christ kept manifoldly calling them to a speedy turning
away from their wonted unbelief, saying not only that He should leave them and go away,
but also of necessity putting before them how great misfortune they will thence undergo.
For ye shall die (He says) in your sins. But since He put in between, And ye shall seek
Me, and hitherto we do not find the Jews seeking Him, we shall reasonably go to some other
meaning: for He must needs be True. For even though they now in the body and yet in full
enjoyment of the pleasures of the flesh, for their exceeding senselessness seek not their
Redeemer, yet when they wretched fall into hell and have their abode in the place of
punishments, when they are in the ill itself, then, then will they seek even against their
will.

For there (He says) is weeping and gnashing of teeth, each (it is likely) of those there
wailing his carelessness in what was good, and well-nigh saying what is in the Book of
Proverbs, I have not obeyed the voice of him that instructed me and taught me. Therefore
as Paul saith, Let us therefore fear lest, a promise being left us of entering into His
Rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For we must run, that we may obtain, and
not by our disbelief insult Him Who draws us out of bitter bondage, but submit ourselves
and with upturned hands lay hold on the grace. and whither I go, YE cannot come. Not only
does He say that they shall die in their sins, but declares clearly that, ascending not to
the mansions above, they will remain outside of the good things of the kingdom: for they
who received not Him Who came from above, how could they also follow Him ascending up?
Double therefore is the punishment to them who believe not, and not in any single thing
their loss. For just as they who have fallen into bodily loss of health must needs suffer
and endure the trials of the suffering and besides be deprived of the pleasures of health;
so and not otherwise do they who have departed into Hades, and there undergo punishment
proportionate to the sins, both endure the state of punishment and lose the enjoyment of
the hope of the saints. Most excellently then does our Lord Jesus Christ say not only that
they shall die in their sins, but also that they shall not mount up to the mansions above:
for binding them as by a twofold cord, does He haste to draw them away from their inherent
ill-counsel.

From all sides saving that which was lost and binding up the broken and raising up that
which was broken down (for these are the ways of a Good Shepherd and One Who readily gives
His Life for the salvation of the sheep) does He tell His own disciples, I will go and
prepare a place for you, and will come again and receive you with Myself, shewing that the
very heaven will be accessible to the saints and teaching that the mansions above have
been prepared for them that love Him, but to those who have chosen to disbelieve Him,
rightly and needs does He say, Whither I go YE cannot come. For who at all will follow the
All-holy Christ, if he love not the cleansing that is through faith? or how shall he that
is yet defiled and that has not cleared off the filth from his passions be with our Lord
Who loves us? What communion hath light with darkness, as Paul saith? For I deem that they
ought to be holy who would say to the All-Pure God, My soul cleaveth after Thee.

I think that this meaning has now too not amiss been put on the words before us, but if
one must go about and view it differently, and say yet something else besides, we will not
shrink from doing this too. Whither I go, YE cannot come. Being Very God, I am absent from
no one, I fill all things, and being with all, I dwell specially in Heaven, gladly having
abode with holy spirits. But since I am the human-loving Framer of all things, I deemed
intolerable the loss of My creation, I beheld man going away to utter destruction, I
viewed him falling from sin unto death, I must needs reach forth an helping Hand to him as
he lay, I must needs in every way aid him overcome and falling. How then was it meet to
save that which was lost? it needed that the Physician should be with those in peril, it
needed that Life should be there present with the dying, it needed that Light should have
its abode with those in darkness. But it were not possible that ye being men by nature
should take wing to Heaven and have your abode with the Saviour. Therefore have I Myself
come to you, I heard the Saints oftentimes crying aloud, Bow Thy Heavens o Lord and come
down; I bowed the Heavens therefore and have come down; for in no other way could ye look
to come hither.

Yet do I endure to remain with you, do ye more resolutely lay hold of life, purify
yourselves through faith while He is with you Who knows to, and can, compassionate with
authority. For I shall go, yea shall return again whither YE cannot come; even though ye
should seek the Giver of salvation by an untimely after-counsel, ye shall not find Him:
what follows ye may see. For ye shall surely die in your sins, and weighed down by your
own transgressions, shall go mourning to the prison-house of death, there to pay the
penalty of your lengthened unbelief. The Saviour then being good and exceeding loving to
man, compels the Jews by fears of future punishment even against their will to be saved.
23 And He said unto them, YE are from beneath, I am from above. Some one haply of those
who have a more studious mind and are wont to approve the more subtle of the Divine
Thoughts, will enquire what it was that induced our Lord Jesus Christ, Who but now
addressed the Jews and said, I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, to add as something
necessary, YE are from beneath, I am from above. For these words seem somehow not to
harmonise altogether with those above, but they are replete with a hidden economy. For
since He is God, having no need as the Divine Evangelist John himself somewhere says, that
any one should testify of man, for He knew what was in man, for He penetrateth even to the
dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the
thoughts and conceptions of the heart: He is not ignorant of the unlearned fantasies of
the Jews, who, since a gross and feeble mind was their inmate, when they heard from the
Saviour's Lips, I go My way, foolishly thought either that leaving Judaea He would flee
somewhere or that He is saying somewhat of this kind, While I live and survive believe,
lest death should befall me. For, I go My way, taken in its common meaning signifies this
too. And it is no wonder if the Jews have fallen into such uncounsel as even to imagine
something of this kind as to Christ.

For they knew not that He is God by Nature, but looking only to this body which is of the
earth, they imagined that He was a man as one of us. Therefore does the Saviour blaming
them say, YE judge after the flesh. Removing them therefore from so puerile and grovelling
a notion, He again teaches them that not of any one subject to birth and decay are they
reasoning such things, but of Him Who is in truth begotten from above and from God the
Father. Not to Me therefore (He says) will belong death and flight, for I am from above,
i. e., God from God (for God is above all) but you will this rather befit. For from,
beneath are ye, that is of nature subject to death and falling under decay and dread. Of
Me therefore (He says) do ye letting go your own weakness imagine nought of this sort, for
not of equal honour with the Lord is the bond, with Him Who is from above and begotten of
God the Father that which is from beneath and of the earth.

But that from above signifies the Eternal Generation of the Son from God the Father, wise
reasoning will persuade us to hold. For from above understood of place signifies the being
from Heaven, but nought would be in the Son special above the creature that is below and
subject to God, if He come only from Heaven, since the more part of the angels too sent
forth to minister walk below, ordering some of the affairs on the earth, descending from
above and from Heaven. And the Saviour is a witness to us saying, Verily verily I say unto
you, ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son
of Man. Since then angels too descend from above, from heaven, why vainly does Christ
boast as of something great and surpassing the whole creation, in having come I mean from
above? But one may without the smallest toil and trouble see Who is by Nature the Only-
Begotten, what the angels that are from Him. Needs therefore does from above signify to us
not this From Heaven which is common [to Him and the Angels] but that the Son beamed forth
from the Nature Which is most exalted and above all things. Therefore doth from above in
regard to the Only-Begotten Alone, signify the being from God and nought else. For while
all things are said to be and to exist from God, the Son has this special above all, viz.,
to be of the Very Essence of the Father by Generation and not as creatures by creation.

Chapter IV. That the Son is by Nature God, wholly remote from likeness to the creature, as
regards Essence.

YE are of this world, I am not of this world. He shewed herein and very clearly what is
the meaning of Above, what of Beneath. For since it was like that the Pharisees able to
understand nothing would consider what had been said in a more corporal manner, and
understand the Above and Beneath of place and would thence stray into many notions,
profitably did our Lord Jesus Christ bare His word of the obscurity that seemed to have
been cast upon it and from all want of clearness, putting more clearly in the sequel what
He had said darkly. For YE (He says) are of this world, i. e., from beneath, I am not of
this world, this then is From above. For God overpasses all that is created, not having
superiority in local exaltation (for it were foolish and utterly uninstructed to conceive
of the Incorporeal as local) but surpassing things originate by the ineffable Excellences
of Nature. Of this Essence does the Word say that He is, not the creation, but the Fruit
and Offspring. For observe how He says not, From above have I been created and made, but
rather, I am, that He may shew both whence He is and that He was ever Eternally with His
own Progenitor. For He is as the Father too is: but He That is and is Eternally with Him
That is, how He was not, let the folly of them who think otherwise 15 say.

But haply the foe of the Truth will withstand us saying, "Not without qualification hath
Christ said, I am not of the world, but by adding This, He hath shewn accurately that
there is another world, the spiritual, whence He might be." Therefore among creatures is
the Son (for this is what thy language, O sir, is working out for us), among those who
have originate nature will the Creator be surely classed, putting about Him some angelic
perchance and slave-befitting dignity you deem that yourself will escape the charge of
blasphemy. For do you not know, that though you attribute to Him that highest position and
status which the holy angels will be conceived of as having, though you confess that He is
above every Princedom and Authority and Throne, and yet believe Him to be originate, you
sin against Him no whit the less? For there is no worthy place whatever of superiority
over the rest to the Only-Begotten, so long as He is at all conceived of as created. For
not in having precedence of any hath He glory but in being not originate, yea rather God
of God by Nature. But THOU again art classing Him Who beamed forth from God and therefore
is God, with things originate, and thou reckonest Him to be a part of the world, and if
not perchance of this one yet of another (for imagined distinction of worlds will make no
difference at all, in respect of having been made): and dost thou not blush putting the
Word Who sitteth with Him Who begat Him, in the category of His guards and those who stand
before Him?

for dost thou not hear Gabriel saying to Zacharias, I am Gabriel that stand in the
Presence of God and I was sent to speak unto thee, and Isaiah, I saw the Lord of Sabaoth
sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the Seraphim were standing round about Him.
And (marvel! the Prophet was beholding the Son and called Him Lord of Sabaoth, and
introduces Him as King with the highest Powers as Body-guard. And that it really was the
Glory of the Only-Begotten which he was beholding, the wise John will testify saying,
These things said Esaias because 16 he saw His glory: and of Him spake he. Wherefore the
Divine Paul too, both from His Co-sitting with God the Father and from His being called
Son by Nature, coming to most accurate perception of the Mystery and gathering the
knowledge pertaining to the idea, says, For unto which of the Angels said (i. e., God the
Father) at any time, My Son art THOU, this day have I begotten Thee? (for in the word I
have begotten, He shews that the Son is by Nature God of God) and again, But to which of
the Angels said He at any time, Sit on My Right Hand? And he does not in saying this
accuse God the Father of either being wont to do aught unjust or as dishonouring the
nature of the angels, when He honoured that by a position below the Son.

For what hinders (may one say) since God the Father is just and good, His making the
nature too of the angels assessor with Himself, if the Son be altogether among things
originate, and con-natural with them in respect of having been created, even though by
some other excellences He surpass the measure belonging to them, just as they may surpass
us. But not unrighteous is God the Father, who bade the Angels to stand in the Presence,
and gave this Dignity to their nature, having His own Son co-seated with Himself, since He
knows that He is by Nature God, and that His own Offspring is not alien from His Essence.
How then is He any longer originate, how of an originate world and not rather in the same
[state] wherein is Very God, i. e., above all things that are conceived of and
acknowledged to exist in every world?

But since ye put out as something great and resistless Christ saying with some fair
distinction, I am not of this world; and by the word this, ye affirm that the other world
is meant, saying that He is of it, let us see again if ye are not staying yourselves upon
rotten arguments, prompted to reason and think thus by only your own want of thought. For
the word This, or of this (as it may be), or whatever we say pronomically, is
demonstrative, and not altogether or necessarily indicative of another. And verily the
blessed Baruch, pointing out to us the One and only God, says, This is our God, there
shall none other be accounted of in comparison with Him, but if the word This were
altogether significant of another, how would not another be accounted of in comparison of
Him? yea and the righteous Symeon too, prophesying the mystery of Christ, says, Behold
this child is set for the fall and rising again of many dead in Israel and for a sign
which is spoken against, although unto whom is it not most manifest, that not as severing
us from other persons does the righteous man say, This, but intimating that He Who is now
present and has been set for this, is by Himself?

Therefore when Christ says, I am not of this world, not surely as being of another world
does He say it, but as defining and laying down in a more corporeal form, as if two
places, the originate nature I mean and that of the Man Who is Ineffable and above every
essence, He puts the Jews in the place of things originate, saying, YE are of this world,
Himself He altogether severing from things created, and connecting with the other place, I
mean Godhead, says, I am not of this world. Hence contrasting (for our knowledge) the
Godhead with the world, He gives Of this to the latter, Himself He apportions to God Who
hath begotten Him and to the Essence which is Supreme over all. "But" (says he) "God the
Father will in nothing wrong the nature of the angels, if He do not please to honour it in
the same degree as the Son. For variety in the creation, or the apportioning glory in
befitting degree to each, in no wise argues that God is unjust, since how then should WE
be less than the angels, albeit we confess that God is Righteous? What then we are in
respect of the angels, that are the angels too in respect of the Son; for they yield as to
one better than they, the being in greater honour than themselves be."

But, most excellent sir, shall we reply, shaming the unlearned heretic, if even though we
be remote from the glory of the angels, since we come short of the piety too that is
inherent in them and though there be much variety in the creation and diversity, and
superiority in honour or inferiority according to the will of Him Who made them, yet is
the being created common to all, and in this there is nought at all that surpasseth or
cometh short of other. For that an angel should excel a man in honour and glory is nought
wonderful, or an archangel too an angel; but the power of mounting up to the glory of Him
Who made all things, we shall find to accrue to no one of creatures: for not any of the
things that have been made will be God, nor will the bond be equal in honour with the
Lord, co-sitting with Him and co-reigning. What measure then of honour will there be to
the Son? being according to you originate and of the spiritual world, will He have God-
befitting Dignity? how will that which is connatural with the creation mount up to the
same glory as He Who is by Nature God, albeit God saith, My Glory will I not give to
another? what (tell me) put the devil forth of the heavenly halls?

was it the thirsting for honour which beseemed the originate nature, yet better and
greater than the measure which accrued to him, and was it in this that the nature of his
crimes lay? or was it that he dared to say, I will be like the Most High? For the creature
pictured to itself that it could mount up to the Nature of its Maker and be co-throned
with God Who has the power over all. Wherefore he hath also fallen as lightning, as it is
written, from heaven. But THOU springing heedlessly upon things so insecure, accountst it
nothing that the Son being according to you of some world, and consequently parcel of the
creation, should be called by way of honour by God the Father to sit with Him, though
Essence in no wise bestow upon Him this nor call Him to Dignity befitting and due to it.
For He receives, if it be as YE in your babbling say, things above the creature in the way
of favour. Away with such blasphemy, man, for we will not be thus minded, may God avert
it! For we believe that angels and archangels and those in yet higher place than they, are
diversely honoured by the Authority and Counsel of the All-wise God, Who allots to each of
the things that are a just Decree:

but as to the Son by Nature, we will not imagine that He is so, for no glory by way of
favour and imported hath He, but since He is of the Essence of God the Father, Very God of
God by Nature and Very, He is co-throned and co-seated with Him, having all things under
His Feet as God, and of the Father with the Father in God-befitting way aloft above the
whole creation. Wherefore rightly heareth He, For all things are Thy servants. And since
from all sides He is found to be Very God, it is (I suppose) wholly clear that He is not
of this world, i. e., originate. For the world here signifies to us the nature of created
things, carrying the comparison from a part unto the whole that is conceived of as
created. As then God withdrawing Himself from all connaturalness with the creature said in
the Prophets, For I am God and not man (and not because He said that He is not man as we,
shall we surely therefore class Him with angels or any other of things originate, but from
part going unto the whole, will confess that God is by Nature Other than all things
originate), so I deem that we ought piously to understand the hard things that come in our
way; for we see in a mirror by a figure, as Paul saith.

24 I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins. Having by few words
overturned the most ill-counselled fantasy of those who thus conceived, and convicted them
again of talking nonsense about Himself, He returns so to speak to the original aim of His
Speech, and resuming it again He shews them in how great ill they will be and into what
they will fall, if they most unreasonably repulse any believing on Him. A thing very
befitting a wise and grave master is this too: for I think that a teacher ought not to
quarrel with the ignorance of his hearers nor to be slack in, his care for them, even if
perchance they do not very readily take in the knowledge of the lessons, but anew, yea
many times, to return to the same things and go through the same words (since verily the
enduring ploughman cleaving the field and having exhausted no slight toil thereon, when he
has sown the seed in the furrows, if he see any spoilt, he turns again to the plough, and
grudges not to sow upon the now ruined parts): for having missed his aim the first time he
will not altogether do the same the second. A like habit the Divine Paul too practising
somewhere says, To say 17 the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous, but for you
it is safe. Seest thou that as the teacher is found superior to sloth, then to the hearers
often follows the being in safe practice? Serviceably then does our Lord Jesus Christ
repeating His Discourse with the Jews affirm that the penalty of not believing on Him will
be in no passing things: for He says that they who believe not must surely die in their
sins. And that death in transgressions is an heavy burden, because it will deliver the
soul of man unto the all-devouring flame, none may doubt.

For if ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins. He explains more exactly what
will happen, and having made the mode of salvation most evident, He shews again by what
way they going shall mount up to the life of the saints, and shall attain to the city that
is above, the heavenly Jerusalem. And not only does He say that one ought to believe but
affirms that it must needs be on Him. For we are justified by believing on Him as on God
from God, as on the Saviour and Redeemer and King of all and Lord in truth. Therefore He
says, Ye shall perish if ye believe not that I am. But the I (He says) is He of Whom it is
written in the Prophets, Shine shine o Jerusalem for thy Light is come, and the glory of
the Lord is risen upon thee. For I (saith He) am He Who of old bade go to the putting off
of the diseases of the soul and Who promised the healing of love through saying, Return ye
returning children and I will heal your backslidings. I am He Who declared that the God-
befitting and olden goodness and incomparable forbearance should be poured on you, and
therefore cried aloud, I, I am He That blotteth out thy sins and I will not remember.

I am (He says) He Who by the Prophet Isaiah also said, Wash you, make you clean, put away
your wickednesses from your hearts from before Mine Eyes, cease from your wickednesses,
and come and let us reason together saith the Lord, even though your sins be as scarlet, I
will whiten them as snow, even though they be like crimson, I will whiten them as wool. I
(says He) am He concerning whom again Isaiah the Prophet himself says, O Zion that
bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain, o Jerusalem that bringest good
tidings, lift up thy voice with strength, lift ye up, be not afraid; behold your God,
behold the Lord cometh with strength and His Arm with rule, behold His reward with Him and
His work before Him: like a shepherd shall He feed His flock, He shall gather the lambs
with His Arm and shall comfort those that are with young: and again, Then the eyes of the
blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap as
an hart, and the tongue of the stammerers be clear. I am (He saith) He of Whom again it is
written that suddenly shall come to His Temple the Lord Whom YE are seeking, even the
Messenger of the covenant Whom YE are desiring, behold He cometh, saith the Lord of hosts,
and who shall abide the Day of His Coming? or who shall stand in His Sight?

for He shall enter in as fire in a smelting house and as the sope of fullers. I am (He
saith) He Who for the salvation of all men promised to offer Myself for a Sacrifice to God
the Father through the voice of the Psalmist and cried, Sacrifice and offering Thou
wouldst not, a Body preparedst Thou Me; whole burnt offerings and for sin Thou delightedst
not in, then I said, Lo I come, in the chapter of the Book it is written of Me, to do Thy
Will, O God. I am, He saith, and the very law through Moses did preach Me, saying thus, A
Prophet of thy brethren like unto me will the Lord thy God raise up unto thee, unto Him
shall ye hearken; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the
day of the assembly. Therefore with reason (says He) shall ye perish and shall pay to the
Judge most righteous Doom, for your much unholiness of manners not giving heed to Him Who
through many saints was fore-heralded to you, and attested by the things too which I work.
For verily and in truth no argument will liberate from the obligation of undergoing
punishment those who believe not on Him, seeing that the Divinely-inspired Scripture is
filled with testimonies and words regarding Him and Himself affords by His Works Splendour
conformable to what was long ago prophesied of Him. 25 They said therefore to Him, Who art
THOU?

Their word commingled with fiercest anger proceeds from boastfulness. For they eagerly
ask, not to learn and believe, but out of much madness they spring (so to speak) on
Christ. For He says in more simple word, I am, not adding, God of God, nor yet ought else
to indicate His inherent Glory; but in lowly wise and apart from all boasting He says only
this I am, leaving it to the better instructed to add what was wanting; and they go on to
wildest and unbridled madness, and from unmeasured haughtiness they all but cut short the
Saviour's word not yet advanced to its completion, and so to say rebuke and interrupt Him
in the middle and say, Who art THOU? This is the part of one who openly says, Dost Thou
dare to think of Thyself ought greater than WE know? we know that Thou art son of the
carpenter, a man low and most poor, of no note with us and altogether nought. They
therefore condemn the Lord as being nought, looking only to His family after the flesh,
but the Magnificence that pertains to His works, and still more His Generation from above
and from the Father, whence they might specially recognize that He is by Nature God, they
do not so much as admit into their mind. For who will work the things that befit God
Alone? will not He surely Who is by Nature God? but Christ wrought them; He therefore was
and is God, even when made Flesh for the salvation and life of all. But they whose belief
is confined to their own mis-counsels, and take no account at all of our Divine and
Divinely-inspired Scripture; they in regard of the very things for which they ought to
give thanks, do disparage Him, knowing neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.

Punctuating therefore with emphasis at the word THOU, and throwing back what is called the
acute accent, we take the word as a question with note of admiration; for they say THOU,
as though, Thou Who art nothing at all, and art known by us to be so, Thou Who art mean
and of mean extraction, what canst Thou say illustrious of Thyself, what worth speaking of
those about Thee? For nought of such daring is foreign to Jewish madness. Jesus said unto
them, That I speak to you at the beginning. I am dishonoured (He says) albeit I invite
unto everlasting life, unto forgiveness of sins, unto putting off of death and corruption,
unto holiness, unto righteousness, unto glory, unto boasting in the sonship with God: yea
I Who would crown you with all these, am counted for nought, and esteemed by you thus
worthless, yea verily I am in deserved condition (He says) because I made a beginning of
discourse with you, because I have spoken somewhat that could profit you, and devised to
save those who were on the point of descending to such deep depravity as to aim at
repaying bitter requital to Him Who hath elected to save them.

Something else besides does Christ appear to indicate to us hereby. It was right (He says)
that I should not converse at all with you at the beginning but on them rather should
confer this who shall most gladly rejoice in My words and without delay submit their neck
to the Gospel ordinances. He means by these the multitude of the Gentiles. But while we
conceive of Him as saying thus, we will guard against the words of the adversaries. For
one of those who are wont to fight against Christ will haply say, "If the Son ought not to
address the Jews at the beginning, but rather the Gentiles, He missed of what was fit, by
doing this rather than that." But we will reply, Not as repenting of His own or of the
Father's Will, does the Son say thus, nor yet as having transgressed what befitted the
Economy (for God would not have devised ought which did not altogether beseem to be): but
by saying that not to you was it right to speak at the beginning, nor among you to lay a
foundation of saving teaching, He shews that both the Father and Himself are by Nature
True and Loving to man. For lo He freely gave to the unholy Jews though not worthy of it
the saving word, having put in the second place the multitude of the Gentiles albeit more
readily making it their aim both to believe and obey Him.

What was it then which persuaded Him to prefer and fore-honour before the rest the
stiffnecked people of the Jews? To them He made through the holy Prophets the promise of
His Coming, to them was the grace due for the fathers' sake. Wherefore He also said, I was
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and to the Syro-phenician woman,
It is not meet to take, the children's bread and to cast it to the dogs. Therefore has
Israel been honoured and ranked before the Gentiles, although he had the crookeder
disposition. But since he knew not the Lord of all and the Perfecter of the promised good
things, the grace of the teaching departed at last to the Gentiles, whom it behoved the
Lord at the beginning and first to have addressed, not in regard of the promise made to
the fathers, but in regard of their innate obedience.

26 I have many things to say and to judge of you. Seeing that the Jews condemn Him more
recklessly, and though they have nothing at all to accuse Him of, are haughty on account
only of the poorness of His Birth after the Flesh, and therefore say that He is nought, He
shamed them mildly, having said above more openly, YE judge after the flesh, I judge no
man. But judging after the flesh will reasonably have some such meaning as this: They who
delight only in earthly things, see nought of the heavenly good things, but looking only
to illustriousness in this life, admire the wealthy or him who boasts in some other petty
glories. But they who after the law of God examine thoroughly into the nature of things
say that he is really the man worthy of love and admiration, who has within him the desire
to live according to the counsel and will of Him Who hath made him. For low position after
the flesh will nothing harm the soul of the man who is accustomed to do well, and on the
other hand illustrious portion in this life and the splendour of wealth will nothing
profit those who refuse to live aright. They therefore judge after the flesh, as we said
just now, who look not to holiness, who use not to prove their walk, their manners, but
turn aside their mind to only earthly things and deem worthy of all admiration him that is
brought up in wealth and luxury.

YE then, O most unwise rulers of the Jews, albeit by the Law of Moses instructed unto
accuracy of giving judgment, judging upon no grounds at all, condemn for only bodily low
estate Him Who through many wondrous works is shewn to you to be God. But I will not
imitate your ill-instructedness, nor will I pass such kind of judgment on you: for nothing
at all is human nature. For what is this perishable and earthly body? rottenness and the
worm and nought else. Yet I will not for this reason condemn you, nor because ye are men
by nature, will I therefore decide that ye ought wholly to be spurned: I have many things
to say and to judge of you, that is, every accusing word has a full office to you-ward,
not of one thing alone shall I accuse you, but of many, and in none shall I speak falsely
as do YE, I have to judge you as disbelieving, as braggarts, as insulters, as fighters
against God, as without feeling, as unthankful, as wicked, as lovers of pleasure rather
than habitually loving God, as receiving honour one of another and seeking not the honour
that cometh from the Only 18, as setting on fire the spiritual vineyard, as not feeding
aright the flock entrusted to you by God, as not leading them by the hand unto Him That is
proclaimed by the Law and the Prophets, i. e., Me.

Such things will the Saviour be declaring to the Jews, but by adding, I have yet many
things to say and to judge of you, He threatens them that He will one Day appear as their
Judge, Who seemed to them to be nought by reason of the Flesh. But He That sent Me is
True, and I the things which I heard from Him, these speak I unto the world. Having taken
leave of the Jews' ill-instructedness, and reckoned as nought those who dared without
restraint to revile Him, He returns again to what He was saying at the beginning,
reserving the judging them and that in all freedom for not this present but for the
fitting time, and retaining to the time of the Appearance its proper aim (for He came not
to judge the world but to save the world, as Himself says). Wherefore keeping fast hold of
the things befitting Him, and repeating the word that calls unto salvation, He carries on
His exhortation. For herein was it meet that we should both marvel at the measure of His
Forbearance and the exceedingness of His inherent Love for man: wherefore doth Peter too
write of Him, Who when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered, He threatened
not but committed Himself to Him That judgeth righteously. Therefore will I expend (He
says) discourse upon you now in particular, not for what ye are wont to do it, for
faultfinding I mean and exercise unto nought that is profitable: but having reserved the
judging you for its fit time, I will keep to what is for your good, and will not cease
from care of you, even though ye of your innate madness foolishly insult Me. I said
therefore to you just now, I am the Light of the world, he that followeth Me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life;

at this ye unreasonably vexed sprang sharply upon Me saying, THOU bearest record of
Thyself, Thy record is not true; to this again I, Even though I bear record of Myself My
record is true, for I know whence I came and whither I go. But if I seem to be burdensome
to you saying these things to you, if I be not a reliable witness of the Dignities
accruing to Me by Nature, yet He That sent Me is True and the things which I heard of Him,
these speak I unto the world. I speak the same (He says) as the Father Who sent Me, I
utter words conformable to His, in saying that I am by Nature Light. The things then which
I heard God the Father say of Me, these things I speak to the world. If then I speak false
according to you, and My record is not true, ye must certainly needs say that the Father
spake falsely before Me. But He is True: therefore I do not speak falsely, and if ye do
not believe My Words, reverence (He says) the Voice of Him That sent Me. For what said He
of Me? Behold a Man, The Day-spring His Name, and again to those who reverence Him, And
unto you that fear My Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise and healing in His wings;
and to Me Whom ye unknowing insult, He says, Behold I have given Thee for a Covenant of
the people for a light of the nations.

But that I am also a Light was told you by Him, for He says, Shine shine O Jerusalem for
thy Light is come and the glory of the Lord hath risen upon thee. These things did I hear
the Father Who sent Me say of Me, and therefore do I say that I am the Light of the world,
but YE disparaged Me, because of the Flesh only judging not rightly, and therefore are ye
bold to say frequently, THOU bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not true. Therefore
(for it is meet to sum up the whole mind of what is before us) He shews that the Jews are
fighting right against God, and that not only with His words, but also with the Father's
decree. For He knows that His Son is by Nature Light and calls Him therefore Dayspring and
San of Righteousness, but they pulling down the destruction of unbelief upon their own
heads reject the Truth calling good evil and therefore shall rightly the Woe follow them.
27 They knew not that He spake to them of the Father.

The Spirit-clad is astonishment-stricken at the senselessness of the Jews, and with great
reason: for what more without understanding than such, who, when much discourse and often
had been made to them concerning God the Father, conceive not of Him a whit when they hear
our Saviour saying, But He That sent Me is True? What then is the plea, and why the
blessed Evangelist says that the Jews knew not that Christ in these words signified God
the Father to them, we must needs say. For since the Saviour said to them, If ye had known
Me, ye should have known My Father also, in order that in this too He may be found saying
what was true, the Evangelist brings in those who know not the Son, as ignorant of the
Father too. For the Son is (so to speak) a Door and Gate unto the knowledge of the Father,
wherefore He also said, No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. For the mind darting up
from Image to Archetype imageth the other from what is before it. It was necessary
therefore to shew that the Jews had no conception of the Father, since they would not be
led, upward mounting from knowledge of the Son to conception of the Father. Wherefore does
the Evangelist clearly shew that when Christ says, He That sent Me is True, they knew not
that He spake to them of the Father.

28 When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am. Imitating the most
excellent physicians, He lays bare the cause of their soul's infirmity and clearly opens
what it was that hinders their going with resolution to understanding and faith towards
Him. For since looking at the Flesh and its family, they were induced to think slightingly
of Him and, having this vail over the eyes of their understanding, they would not know
that He is God even though He is seen as Man, needs did He address them saying, When ye
have lifted up the Son of Man then shall ye know that I am, i. e., when ye cease from your
slight and grovelling conception of Me, when ye have some lofty and super-mundane thought
of Me, and believe that I am God of God, even though for your sakes I am become Man as
you, then shall ye know clearly that I am the Light of the world (for this I just now told
you): for what would any longer hinder (He says) Him Who is wholly admitted to be Very
God, from being also Light of the world? For not to so great depth of madness and daring
will any go as then too to venture to say, Thy record is not true, for he will in no wise
accuse what God by Nature and Very shall say.

It is then most evident from the words too of the Saviour, that if we have a mean opinion
of Him and consider Him to be bare Man and bereft of the Godhead by Nature, we shall
surely both disbelieve Him and not admit Him as Saviour and Redeemer. And what is the
result? we have fallen from our hope. For if salvation is through faith and faith be gone,
what will yet save us? But if we believe and lift up to God-befitting height the Only-
Begotten even though He hath become Man, advancing as with a fair wind and speeding across
the all-troublous sea of life, we shall safe moor in the city that is above, there to
receive the rewards of believing. The same in another way. When ye have lifted up the Son
of man, then shall ye know that I am. Having with many and good words bathed the wrath of
the Jews, He sees it not a whit the less swelling. For they cease not heedlessly
blaspheming, yea at one time they set aside His Speech and impiously call Him a liar: for
to say Thy record is not true, what else is it than this? at another time again, to Him
out of love declaring the things that belong to salvation and on this account saying, If
ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins, they began hotly to oppose Him and
arraying against those utterances of love their words of madness said, Who art THOU? For
them therefore who thus unmitigatedly wallowed in unreasoning audacity there was need of a
word that should sober them and persuade them to be more gently disposed and put a bridle
on their tongue even against its will. Therefore was He threatening them telling them most
clearly that they shall not escape punishment for their impiety, but even though they see
Him for the present forbearing, yet when their impiety towards Him has gone forth to its
dread consummation, I mean Death and the Cross, they shall undergo all-dread justice and
shall receive in return intolerable lot, that of the war with the Romans, which after the
Saviour's Cross befell them from the wrath above from God.

And that they should suffer all-terrible things, the Saviour again signified more clearly
to them saying, at one time to the weeping women, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me
but weep for yourselves and for your children, at another again, When ye shall see
Jerusalem compassed with armies, then shall ye say to the mountains, Cover us and to the
hills, Fall on us 20. For to such an extent do the sufferings of the war overcome the
Jews, that every kind of death was to them pleasanter and rather to be chosen than the
trial of them: their removal from their country, the enslavements of those who inhabit it
and their most savage slaughter and the famines in every city and their child-devourings
therein Josephus too relates in his history. When then (He says) ye having betrayed to the
cross the Son of man endure your retributive punishment, and pay penalties correspondent
to your daring deeds against Me, then shall ye weeping know that I am the All-Powerful,
that is God. For if one sparrow enter not the snare of the fowler without the will of God,
how shall a whole country, (He saith) and the beloved 21 nation go on to destruction so
complete, except God supreme over all had surely permitted that so it should be? Evil
therefore and all-dread is the contempt of God which bringeth to the consummation of
things to be deprecated. Wherefore Paul too rebuketh some, saying of God, Or despisest
thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the
goodness of God is leading thee to repentance, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart
treasurest up unto thyself wrath in the Day of wrath?

The same in another way Christ spent long time dwelling with the Jews, and speaking in
every synagogue, so to say, and addressing them every sabbath-day and, setting before them
often and ungrudgingly profitable teaching, was continually inviting them to the
illumination through the Spirit, and verily He saith, in that He is God by Nature and
Very, I am the light of the world; but they thinking most foolishly were ever gainsaying
Him who said these things, for (says he) THOU bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not
true. And not at contradictions in words did the daring of the Jews stay, nor only in love
of reviling was their untamed audacity consummated, but going without stint through all
savageness, they at last betrayed Him both to Cross and Death. But since He was by Nature
Life, having burst the bonds of death, He arose from the dead and (as was reasonable)
departs from Jewish defilement and hasted away from Israel and that with justice, and
betaking Himself to the Gentiles, He invited all to the Light, and to the blind He freely
bestowed recovery of sight. It befell then that after the Death on the Cross of our
Saviour Christ, the understandings of the Jews were darkened, in that the Light had
departed forth from them, and that the hearts of the Gentiles were enlightened, in that
the Very Light beamed upon them.

When then, He says, ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am,
instead of, I will await the consummation of your impiety, I will not bring upon you wrath
before its time, I will accept the Passion and Death, I will endure along with the rest
this too. But when ye shall betray to the Cross the Son of Man deemed by you to be bare
man, then shall ye know, even against your will, that not falsely have I said that I am
the Light of the world. For when ye see yourselves darkened, the innumerable multitude of
the Gentiles enlightened by having Me with them, how will ye not even against your will
agree that I am of a truth the light of the world? For that the Saviour was going to
depart from the Synagogue of the Jews after His coming to Life again from the dead, is
doubtful to none (for it has been accomplished and done): yet may one see it somehow (yea
even clearly) from His words, While ye have the Light walk in the Light, lest darkness
come upon you. For the repression and withdrawal of light generates darkness, and again
the presence of light causes darkness to vanish. Therefore is Christ shewn as being of a
truth Light, Who darkened the Jews through His Departure from them, and enlightened the
Gentiles through His Presence with them: and a bitter lesson to the Jews was their
experience of dread things.

The same in another way When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I
am. Since looking only (He says) to the flesh, ye believe that I am mere Man, and deem
that I am one like yourselves, but the Dignity of the Godhead and the Glory from thence,
do not so much as enter your mind:----a most evident token to you of My being God of Truly
God and Light of Light, shall be your all-dread and most lawless deed of daring, the Cross
that is and the Death of the Flesh thereupon. For when ye see the issue of your mad folly
frustrate of its purpose and the snare of death crushed in pieces (for I shall surely rise
from the dead): then shall ye even against your will and of necessity at length assent to
what I said to you and shall confess that I am by Nature God. For I shall be superior to
death and decay, I being by Nature Life shall raise again My Temple. But if to overmaster
death and to triumph over the meshes of corruption belong to Him Who is by Nature God and
to no other being, how shall I not (all contradiction and all doubt being removed) be
shewn thereby to overcome all things mightily and without trouble? therefore does the
Saviour say that His Cross shall be a sign to the Jews and a most evident demonstration of
His being by Nature God.

And this you may see Him elsewhere too, clearly saying: for when many and unnumbered
prodigies had been shewn forth by Him, the Pharisees once came to Him tempting Him and
saying, Master, we would see a sign from Thee. But He since He saw the imaginations which
were going on in them, and was not ignorant that they were bitterly minded, says, An evil
and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it, but
the sign of the prophet Jonas; for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's
belly, so shall the Son of man too be three days and three nights in the heart of the
earth. Hearest thou how to the Jews asking a sign as a proof that He is God by Nature,
even though they said it tempting Him, He says that no other shall be shewn to them save
the sign of the prophet Jonas, i. e. the three days death and the coming to life again
from the dead? For what token of God-befitting authority so great and manifest, as to undo
death and overthrow decay, albeit by Divine sentence having the mastery over human nature?
For in Adam it heard, Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return; but it was in the
power of Christ the Saviour both to end His Anger, and by blessings to overthrow the death
which from His curse prevailed.

But that the Jews exceedingly feared the sign of the resurrection as mighty to convince
that Christ is by Nature God, their final deed will clearly tell us, for when they heard
of the Resurrection of the Saviour, and that He was not found in the tomb, terrified and
exceeding fearful thereat, they planned to buy off the informations of the soldiers by
large money. For they gave them money to say, His disciples came by night and stole Him
while we slept. Mighty therefore is the sign of the Resurrection, having undoubted
demonstration that Jesus is God, whereat the hard and unbending heart of the Jews was sore
troubled.

Chapter V. That not inferior in Might and Wisdom to God the Father is the Son, yea rather
His very Wisdom and Might.

And of Myself I do nothing, but as the Father taught Me, I speak these words. He speaketh
in more human wise, in that the Jews could not otherwise understand, nor endure to hear
from Him unvailed things God-befitting. For on these matters are they found hurling stones
at Him, and setting it down as blasphemy, that being Man, He made Himself God. Withdrawing
therefore the surpassingness of God-befitting glory and having much bereft His language of
its splendour, He condescends most excellently to the infirmities of the hearers, and
since searching into their mind within He finds that they know Him not to be God, He
fashions His Discourse in human wise, that their dispositions may not be again kindled
unto anger and they foolishly dart away from cleaving to Him even a little. Ye shall know
therefore (He says) when ye have lifted up the Son of Man, that I am, ye shall know again
in like manner that of Myself I do nothing, but as My Father taught Me, so I speak.

And what need of these words (tell me) may some one haply say, and what does Christ teach
us herein? Therefore we will say, piously and with fair distinction expandingeach of the
things said; Ye have never ceased (He saith) falling upon My Deeds, as though wrought
madly and un-holily, ye condemned Me oft as not refusing to transgress, as wont to act
contrary to the Lawgiver. For I loosed the paralytic from his so great infirmity, I
compassionated a man on the sabbath. But seeing (He saith) you who ought to have wondered
at it, finding fault thereat and missing much of what befit Me, yea even just now I
explaining to you what belongs to salvation was persuading you to advance to the desire of
sharing in light. Then did I shew you the Very Light, for declaring to you Mine own
Nature, I said, I am the light of the world, and YE acting and counselling most
unadvisedly, rose up against My words and dared unrestrainedly to say, Thy record is not
true. When then ye have lifted up the Son of man, that is, when ye compass Him about with
death and behold Him superior to the bonds of death (for I shall rise from the dead, since
I am God by Nature) then ye shall know (He says) that I do nothing of Myself but as My
Father taught Me so I speak.

For ye will learn when ye see that the Son too is God by Nature, that I am by no means
self-opiniate, but ever of one Will with God the Father, and whatsoever He doth, these
things I too do not shrink from doing and whatever I know that He speaks, I again speak.
For I am of the Same Essence as He That begat Me. For I healed the palsied on the sabbath
day, YE again were bitterly disposed thereat, yet shewed I you My Father working on the
sabbath also: for I said, My Father worketh hitherto and I work: therefore of Myself I do
nothing. Again I said, I am the Light of the world, but ye imagined that I was saying
something discordant from the Father and in this too did I again shame you, shewing that
He said of Me, Behold I have set Thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the
nations. In vain therefore (He saith) do ye accuse Him Who ever hath One Will with the
Father and doth nought dissonant to Him nor endureth to say ought which is not His. For
this is the meaning I think that we should fit on to the words.

But the bitter wild beast will haply leap upon us, the fighter against Christ, I mean
Arius, and will cry out upon us (as is likely) and will come and say, "When the discourse,
sir, was proceeding all right, what made you pressing forward thrust it aside to your own
mere pleasure and do you not blush at secretly stealing away the force of the truth? Lo
clearly the Son affirms that He does nought of Himself, but that what He learns of God the
Father, this He also speaks, and so is conscious that His Father is in superior position
to Himself." What then, most excellent sir (will such an one hear in return), is the Son
supplied with might and understanding from the Father, that He may be able to do and to
speak without blame? how then is He any longer God by Nature, who borrows from another
power and wisdom, just as the nature of the creature too has it? for to those who from not
being obtain being, every thing that accrues to them is also surely God-given. But not so
is it in the Son; for Him the Divine Scripture knows and proclaims as Very God and I think
that to Him Who is by Nature God do all good things in perfect degree belong, and that
which possesses not perfection in every single thing that ought to be admired, how will it
be by Nature God? For as incorruption and immortality must surely belong to it naturally
and not from without or imported, so too the all-perfection and lacking nought in all good
things. But if according, sir, to thy unhallowed and unlearned argument the Son be
imperfect in regard of being able to do things God-befitting and to speak what is right,
and yet He is the Power and Wisdom of the Father according to the Divine Scripture, to the
Father rather and not to Him will so great an accusal belong. For thus defining these
things you will say that in potential no longer is God the Father Perfect, nor yet is He
wholly Wise.

You see then whither the daring of thine unlearning sinks down. And I marvel how this too
has escaped thy acumen.: how (tell me) will God the Father supply might to His own Might,
or how will He render His own Wisdom wiser? For either one must needs say that it ever
advances to something greater and goes forward by little and little to being capable of
somewhat more than its existing strength (which is both foolish and utterly impossible),
or must impiously suppose that He is strengthened by another. How then will the Son be any
more called Lord of Hosts or how will He be any longer conceived of as Wisdom and Might,
strengthened (according to you) and made wise by another? Away with the blasphemy and
absurdity of reasoning. For either grant outright that the Son is a creature that ye may
have the whole of Divinely-inspired Scripture crying out against you, or if ye believe
that He is by Nature God, grant, grant that the Properties of Godhead pertain to Him in
Perfect degree. For it is the property of the Natural Being [of God 22] neither to be
impotent about anything, nor to come short of supreme Wisdom, yea rather to be Wisdom and
Power's very self; but in wisdom nought is through teaching, nor yet in the Chief and
truly conceived-of Power do we see imported power.

But that by examining also the very nature of things, we may more accurately test what are
said by Christ, we will add this too to what has been said. What so great deed hath the
Only-Begotten made Man wrought, that will surpass His inherent Power? For it was like I
suppose that some would say that it then resulted that He should fitly say, as having
borrowed the Power from God the Father, Of Myself I do nothing, because He drove out the
evil spirit, let go the palsied from his infirmity, freed the leper from his suffering,
gave the blind to see, sated a no easily reckoned multitude of men with five loaves,
appeased the raging sea with a word, raised Lazarus from the dead: shall we say that the
manifestation herein is superior to His innate Power? Then how (tell me) did He stablish
the so great Heaven and spread it out as a tent to dwell in, how founded He the earth, how
became He Artificer of sun and moon and what pertains to the firmament? how created He
angels and Archangels Thrones and Lordships and yet besides, the Seraphim? He Who was in
so vast and supernatural position, lacking neither Might nor Wisdom from another, how
could He be powerless in matters so small, or how should He Who by the holy Prophets is
glorified as Wisdom need one who must teach Him what to say to the Jews?

For I hear a certain one say, The Lord who made the earth by His power, who established
the world by His Wisdom, and stretched out the heavens in His discretion, and besides, the
Divine Daniel too says. Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, for wisdom and
understanding and might are His. But if His, according to the Prophet's voice, are both
might and wisdom, who will any more endure the wordinessof the heterodox, saying that the
Wisdom and Power of the Father is supplied with both power and wisdom from another? "But
if we said (says he) that there were some other to supply to the Son what He lacked of
power, or to teach Him, reasonably could ye attack us with words, knowing that ye were on
the side of Him as insulted: but since we say that God the Father gives this, what plea
for aggrievance any longer appears to you from thence?"

Therefore if ye think that ye will in nothing wrong the Son, in respect of His being by
Nature unlike Him Who begat Him, even though He be said to be supplied by Him, remember,
man, your late words, and be taught thereby not to be offended: grant Him to be in all
things Equal to His Progenitor, and in no way or respect whatever inferior to Him. But if
it draw thee aside from the reasonings of orthodoxy, and persuade thee to deem of Him what
is not lawful, why dost thou vainly attempt to beguile us with so rotten words? for it
will make no difference at all, whether God the Father Himself, or any other than He, be
said to give ought to the Son. For having once fallen under the charge of receiving ought,
what gain will He derive, though the Person of the Giver were exceeding illustrious? For
what difference (tell me) will it make to a person who refuses a blow to be struck with a
wooden rod or a gilt one? for it is not the suffering in this way that is good but the not
suffering at all.

The Son therefore being proved to be lacking in both power and wisdom, if He be shewn to
receive ought from Him, and having herein complete accusal, how is it not utterly foolish
that we should smite our hearers with stale words, and by inventions of deceit smear over
the charge by deeming that no one else but the Father Alone is admitted as supplying Him?
But I marvel how though they think they are wise, and in no slight degree practised in the
art of making subtle distinctions with words foreign to the subject, that this escaped
them, viz., that by disparaging the Impress of God the Father, i. e., the Son, ye do not
so much accuse Himself as Him Whose Impress He is, since He must of necessity so be as He
is seen to be in the Son. "But," says he, "the Son's own voice will compel thee even
against thy will to consent to what He did not disdain to utter: for Himself hath
confessed that He doth nothing of Himself but that whatever He was taught of God the
Father these things He speaks."

Well then to thee, good sir, let the things even that are well said seem to be not well,
seeing that thou deniedst the light of truth: but WE again will go our own way, and will
deem of the Only-Begotten as is customary and wonted, with becoming piety comparing them
with what is before us. For if the Only-Begotten had said, I do nothing of Myself but
receiving power from God the Father, I both work wonders and am marvelled at, it would be
even thus a speech shewing that He nowise ought to be accused therefore, yet would our
opponent have seemed to oppose us with greater shew of reason. But since He says simply
and absolutely without any addition, I do nothing of Myself, we will not surely say that
He is blaming His own Nature as infirm for ought, but that He means something else that is
true and incapable of being found fault with. In order that transforming the force of the
expression to man, we may see accurately what He says, let there be two men having the
same nature, equal in strength and likeminded one with another, and let one of them say,
Of myself I do nothing, will he say this as powerless and able to do nothing at all of
himself, or as having the other co-approver and co-minded and co-joined with him? thus
conceive I pray of the Son too, yea rather much more than this.

For since the Jews were foolishly springing upon Him as He was working marvels, even
accusing the breach of the sabbath, and imputing to Him transgression of the law, He at
length shewed God the Father in all things Co-minded and Co-approver, skillfully shaming
the unbridled mind of them who believe Him not. For it was like that some would now shrink
from any inclination to blame Him when He said that He did all things according to the
Will of the Father and pointed out His own Will in His. For that the Son does all things
according to the Will of the Father will shew that He is not less and an under-worker, but
of Him and in Him and Consubstantial. For since He is the Very Wisdom of the Father and
His Living Counsel, He confesses that He does not do ought else than what the Father
wills, Whose both Wisdom and Counsel He is, seeing that the understanding too that is in
us does not ought of itself, but accomplishes all that seems good to us. And little is the
example to the verity, but it hath an image not obscure of the truth. And as the
understanding that is in us is accounted nought else than we ourselves, in the same way I
deem the Wisdom of God the Father, i. e., the Son, is nought other than He in regard to
sameness of Essence and exact Likeness of Nature: for the Father is Father and the Son Son
in Their own Person.

But because to this He adds, As the Father taught Me, I speak these things, let no one
think that the Son is in need of teaching for any thing whatsoever (for great is the
absurdity of reasoning herein): but the force of what is said has this meaning. For the
Jews who were not able to understand ought that was good, were not only offended at what
were marvellously wrought, but also when ought God-befitting was uttered one may see them
in the same case, and specially when He truly says, I am the Light of the world, they were
both cut to the heart and counselled all-daring deeds. But the Lord Jesus Christ that He
might convict them of vainly raging about this says that His own Words are God the
Father's, saying Taught in more human wise. Yet we shall find the force of the speech not
without a subtle inner-thought, and if the enemy of the truth will not admit what is
human, he very greatly wrongs the plan of the economy with Flesh (for the Only-Begotten
humbled Himself being made Man, and for this reason ofttimes He speaketh as Man): but let
him know again that the saying, As the Father taught Me, so I speak, will no way injure
the Son in respect of God-befitting Dignity, for we will show that this saying of His too
is on all sides sound and right.

But let yon accuser of the doctrines of piety answer us who ask, Who (tell me) teaches the
new-born babe to use human voice? why does he not roar as a lion or imitate some other of
the irrational creation? But nature its teacher fashioning after the property of the sower
that which is of him must needs surely and will proceed to that common sound used by all.
It is then possible without being taught to learn of nature which infuseth so to say the
whole property of the sower into tho offspring. Thus therefore does tho Only-Begotten
Himself here too affirm that He learned of the Father. For what nature is to us, that full
surely may God the Father be reasonably conceived of to Him; and as WE since we are men
and of men, learning untaught from nature speak as befits men, so He too, since He is God
of God by Nature, learnt as of His Own Nature to speak as God and to say things befitting
God, as is I am the Light of the world. For what He knows that He is because of the Father
from Whom He is (for He is Light of Light), this He said that He learnt of Him, having a
sort of untaught learning of God-befitting works and words from the own Nature of Him Who
begat Him, mounting up as by necessary laws to sameness in all things of will and of word
with God the Father.

For how must not sameness of Will and Equality and Likeness in Words needs be without
contradiction inexistent in Those Who have the Same Nature? Of God altogether are we
speaking, not of us; for us divergences of manners and differences of wills and tyrannies
of passions drag aside from the limits of what befits: but the Divine and Inconceivable
Nature being the Same always and fixed immoveably in Its own Goods, what divergences unto
ought else can It have? or how will It not altogether advance the straight course of Its
own Purpose and both speak and accomplish what belongs to It? The Only-Begotten then being
of the Same Essence with Him Who begat Him and pre-eminent in the Dignities of the One
Godhead, will (I suppose) surely and of necessity work whatever the Father Himself too
works (for this is the meaning of doing nothing of Himself); and will surely speak what
belongs to Him Who begat Him, not as a minister or bidden or as a disciple, but possessing
as the fruit of His Own Nature, to use the words also of God the Father. For herein shines
forth clearly and apart from all railing this, viz. that nothing is said by Him [as from
Himself].

29 And He That sent Me is with Me, and hath not left Me alone. Herein He shews clearly
that He interprets the Counsel of God the Father, Himself having none other than is in Him
(how could He? for He is Himself the Living and Hypostatic Counsel and Will of Him Who
begat Him, as is said in the Book of the Psalms by one of the Saints, In Thy Counsel Thou
guidedst me, and again, Lord by Thy Will Thou gavest might to my beauty : for in Christ
are all good things to them that love Him) but as bringing forth unto our knowledge the
things that are in God the Father. For as this word of ours uttered externally and poured
forth through the tongue makes known what is in the deep of our understanding, both
receiving, as some learning, the will that is in our mind in respect of anything, and
impelled by it to utter it in such manner: so again we will piously conceive that the Son
(surpassing the force of the example in that He is Himself both Word and Wisdom of God the
Father) uttered what exists in Him. And since He is not impersonal as is man's, but
inbeing and Living as having His own Being in the Father and with the Father, He says here
that He is not Alone, but that with Him is Him also That sent Him. But when He says, With
Me, He indicates again something God-befitting and Mystic. For we do not think that He
saith thus, viz. that as God may be (for instance) with a Prophet, guarding him, that is,
with His own Might and aiding him by His favour or by the enlightenment through the Spirit
stirring him up to prophecy:----that so is He That begat Him with Him. But here too He
puts with Me in another sense: for He That sent Me (He says) i. e., God the Father, is in
the same Nature as I.

After this sort will you understand that too which is in Isaiah the Prophet about Christ,
Know ye people and he ye worsted for with us is God. For our discourse hereon will befit
those who have set on Him their hope of being saved. And these too say With us is God, not
as though any should imagine that God will be our co-worker and co-assistant, but that He
will be with us, that is, of us. For the Word of God hath become Man, and in Him we all
have been saved and burst the bonds of death, and put off the corruption of sin, since God
the Word being in the Form of God hath come down to us and become with us. As then we here
understand With us is God, for, The Word of God the Father hath become of the same nature
with us: so here too preserving the same analogy in our thoughts, when Christ says, He
that sent Me is with Me and hath not left Me alone, we shall clearly understand Him to
indicate mystically that (as we said before) God the Father is of the Same Nature as I and
hath not left Me alone : for it were altogether impossible not to have wholly with Me God
the Father of Whom I am begotten.

And perhaps some one will say and will ask more thoughtfully, Why does the Saviour say
such things or what was it induced Him to come to this explanation ? To this WE will
reply, shewing that profitably and of necessity did He add this too to what He had already
said. For since He said that as the Father taught Me, I speak these things, needs does He
shew that the Father is now co-with Him and consubstantial with Him, that He may be
believed to speak what is His, as God the things of God, and urged on by the Natural
Property of Him That begat Him to say what is God-befitting, just as the children of men
having of their nature some untaught learning, as we said above, know truly the properties
of human nature. We must not therefore be offended, when the Son says that He learnt ought
from the Father; for not for this reason will He be found less than He nor yet alien
according to them. And let us consider the matter thus. Not in knowing any thing or in not
knowing it, is the matter of essence tested, but in what each by nature is. As for example
suppose Paul and Silvanus; and let Paul know and be instructed perfectly in the mystery as
to Christ, Silvanus somewhat less than Paul. Are they then not alike in nature or will
Paul surpass Silvanus in respect of essence, because he knows the depth of the mystery
more than the other? But I suppose that no one will be foolish to such an extent as ever
to suppose that their nature is severed by reason of superiority or inferiority in
knowledge. When then the condition of essence is (as we have said) accurately proved not
to lie in learning or teaching ought, it will no wise injure the Son in regard of His
being by Nature God, if He say that He learns ought of His own Father. For not on this
account will He go forth from Consubstantiality with Him, but abideth wholly what He is,
God of God, Light of Light.

But you will perhaps say, How then? the Father is greater in knowledge, for therefore doth
He teach the Son. But we again will say that we have entirely shewn through many words
that the Wisdom of the Father is without any need of learning and instruction and having
joined together many arguments thereto, we proved that their speech has its exit in
boundless blasphemy. Next, it is necessary to tell thee besides that the Son's aim and
special care is ever to abate His own Dignity and not to speak much in God-befitting
manner, because of the Form of the servant and of the abasement thence for our sakes
undertaken. For whither hath He descended, and whence unto what removed, if He say nothing
inferior and not wholly worthy of God-befitting glory? For for these reasons He often
takes the form of not knowing as Man what as God He knows. You will see this clearly in
the history of Lazarus of Bethany, whom when now of four days and stinking, He with
wonder-working might and most God-befitting voice caused to return to life. Look at the
economy fashioned herein. For knowing that Lazarus was dead and having fore-announced
this, as God, to His disciples, in human wise Ho asked, saying, Where have ye laid him? O
wondrous deed! He Who was living far away from Bethany and was not ignorant as God, that
Lazarus is dead, how sought He to learn where the tomb was? But you will say (thinking
most rightly) that He made feint of the question, arranging something profitable. Receive
therefore in this case too that He economically says that what He knows as God, this He
learnt of the Father; not permitting the mad folly of the Jews to be further excited, and
punishing the wrath of the more unlearned, He does not introduce God-befitting language to
them unsoftened, although it rather befitted Him so to do.

But since they were surmising that He is yet mere man, He mingling as it were the Dignity
of Godhead with man-befitting words speaks economically more lowly than Ho is, For I do
always the things that please Him. Receive (I pray) herein too the solution of what seem
hard and observe clearly that He rightly interprets. Of Myself I do nothing. For for this
reason (He says) testified I that I do nothing of Myself, when I but now addressed you,
because it is My habit and practice to do nothing discordant to God the Father, nor to be
able to do anything save what pleaseth My Progenitor. It is then very clear that in this
alone will it be understood that the Son doth nothing of Himself, viz. in His ever doing
what pleases God the Father, so that except He had thus wrought, He would have done
somewhat of Himself, i.e., contrary to the Will of Him That begat Him. It is not then
because He comes short of the Paternal Goodness, nor because of being able to achieve
nought of His own Strength, that He here affirms that He does nothing of Himself, but
because He is Co-minded and Co-willer ever with His Progenitor in every thing, and has no
thought of ever accomplishing any thing as it were separately.

And we do not, going off into extravagant notions, think that the Son is here displaying
in Himself any virtue proceeding of choice and habit, but rather the Fruit of Nature That
knows no turning, Which needs not the Divine [help] in counselling to do anything. For as
to the creatures, inasmuch as they are capable of turning to the worse, and of giving way
to changes from better to worse, good will be fruit of the pious and virtuous disposition:
but as to the Divine and All-Surpassing Nature it is not so. For since all change and turn
is removed and has no place, good will be the fruit of the unalterable Nature, just as
heat in fire or cold in snow. For fire has obviously its proper action, not of voluntary
notion, but natural and essential, without the power of being otherwise except it be
driven away from its action by the will of its Maker. Therefore not as WE, or ought other
of the rational creation, mastered by our free will to press forward to do what pleases
God the Father; not so does the Only-Begotten say thus, but as following the laws of His
own Nature and able to think and do nought save according to the Will of Him Who begat
Him. For how could the Consubstantial and One Godhead ever be at variance with Itself? or
how could It do what liketh It not, as though any had power to turn it aside unto ought
else?

For though God the Father exist properly and by Himself, likewise both the Son and the
Spirit, yet is the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity not riven asunder unto complete
severance, but the whole Fulness thereof mounteth up unto One Nature of Godhead. We must
besides consider this too, that no argument can reasonably pull down the Son from His
sameness of Nature with the Father, seeing that He affirmed that He always doth what
pleaseth Him, but rather being Consubstantial with Him will He be thereby acknowledged to
be God of God by Nature and Very. For who (tell me) will savour the things of God after a
God-befitting and exact manner, except Himself too be by Nature God? or who will perform
always what is pleasing to Him, if he have not a nature beyond the reach of the worse, and
have for his share the choice Dignity of the Divine Nature, I mean being unable to sin?
For of the creature it has been said, Who will boast that he has his heart clean, or who
will be confident that he is pure from sins, and elsewhere the Divine Scripture extending
its utterance even to the very utmost boundsays, The stars are not pure in His Sight. For
angels, albeit far removed from our condition, and having a firmer status as to virtue,
have not kept their own princedom. For by reason of some being altogether torn thence and
falling into sin, the whole nature of the rational creation lies under the charge of being
recipient of sin, and powerless to be imparticipate of change for the worse: and the
reasonable and godlike living creature upon the earth hath fallen, not after any long
period, but in the first man Adam.

Wholly therefore refused to the creature is unchangeability and un-turning and being able
to be of nature the same; to God Alone That is in truth will it belong. But this shines
forth full well in the Son, for He did no sin, as Paul saith, neither was guile found in
His Mouth. God therefore is the Son, and by Nature of God who cannot sin, nor over
overstep what befits His Nature. When then He confesses that He does always those things
that please the Father, let no one be offended, nor deem that in lesser rank than the
Father is He who is of Him, but let him rather think piously that as God of God by Nature
He ascendeth unto the sameness of counsel and (so to speak) sameness of work with Him Who
begat Him. 30 As He spake these words, many believed on Him. The wise Evangelist ofttimes
marvels at Christ practising depreciation in His Words because of the infirmity of the
hearers, and wont to achieve something great thereby. For whereas it was in His Power as
God to speak all things, and to fashion His Discourse free and with royal Authority over
all, keeping measure in His Speech economically, He encloses many unto obedience, many
again He persuades to give heed more zealously unto Him. Therefore not empty is the
Saviour's purpose, I mean His speaking to the multitudes in more human wise: for some of
the more unlearned were used to rage against Him not a little and readily to desert Him,
beholding a man and hearing God-befitting words. But since He was God and Man in one,
having unblamed the authority that pertains to each, and able to speak without fault in
whatever way He please, He doing exceeding well fashioned it in view of the levity of His
hearers, diversely declaring of Himself (and that often) the things that belong to a man,
such (I mean) as Of Myself I do nothing and things akin to this: for they understanding
nothing whatever, but attacking without any investigation what was said, went to this
common and offhandmode of understanding it, and thought that He said, Receiving power of
God I work miracles, and He is with Me, since I do always what is pleasing to Him.

Likeminded then with the unholy Jews are the accursed enemies of the Truth, who
contradicting the dogmas of piety and loving to wrangle, think meanly of the Lord, and
seizing on what is economically and rightly said, to overturn therewith His inbeing Glory
and Authority, they steal away the Beauty of the Truth. For they have not (it seems)
remembered Paul who saith that one ought to cast down imaginations and every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and to bring into captivity every
thought to Christ and to His obedience: they have not known what was uttered concerning
the Divine Oracles by one of the Prophets, Who is wise and he shall understand these
things? prudent and he shall know them? For unless some exceeding great obscurity hovered
upon them, and a deep darksome veil floated over, what were the need for a wise and
prudent man being sought after who might find out the knowledge of them?

And this is abundance for the present matter, we will speak rather on what is before us,
choosing something profitable. Upon Christ when saying these things, there believed on
Him, as saith the Evangelist, not all but many. Yet albeit He is Very God, and hath nought
that is not wholly naked unto His Eyes and knows and that with all accuracy that He will
not take hold of all unto belief, He yet perseveres, expending long discourse on them who
come to Him, giving us an Example most fair in this too, and offering Himself a Pattern to
the Teachers of the Church. For even though all be haply not profited because of their own
depravity, yet since it was likely that some would reap good thereby, we must not be
sluggish to lead to what is profitable. For if we bury so to say in unfruitful silence the
talent given us, that is, the grace through the Spirit, we shall be like that wicked
servant who said without any restraint to his Master, I knew Thee that Thou art an hard
man reaping where Thou didst not sow and gathering whence Thou didst not straw and I was
afraid and hid Thy talent in the earth, lo, Thou hast Thine own. But to what end that so
wretched man came, and what penalty He exacted of him, the studious man well knows having
met with it not once only in the Gospel books.

Therefore let us lay this to heart and consider aright that it is his duty to be free from
all indolence in teaching, his I mean who is set forthfor this work, and in no wise to
turn aside to despise it, even though all be not persuaded by his words, but rather shalt
thou rejoice at what thou gainest by thy toil. It is meet too to consider with all
sobriety that which has been spoken by our Saviour, The disciple is not above his master,
nor the servant above his lord: enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the
servant as his lord. For if the Lord persuade not all on account of the crookedness and
hardness of heart of the hearers, who will blame our feeble speech, though it demand
understanding of free-choice not of necessity? 31 Jesus said therefore to the Jews which
believed on Him, If YE abide in My word, ye are My disciples indeed.

He demandeth of those who believe a disposition established and fixed and prepared for the
abode of that good which they had once chosen. And this is faith in Him. For wavering
shews utter senselessness and unprofit, seeing that A double minded man is unstable in all
his ways, as it is written: but to press forward firmly to have hold of what is
profitable, is indeed wise and most useful. As far then as belongs to the more obvious
meaning, He says this, that if they shall desire to obey His Words, then shall they be
surely called His disciples also. But as regards some hidden meaning, He signifies this:
for in saying If YE abide in My Word, He is clearly withdrawing them by degrees and gently
from the Mosaic teachings, and removing them from adherence to the letter and bidding them
no longer cleave to what were uttered and done in type, but rather to His own Word which
is clearly the Gospel and Divine preaching. For He it was Who ever of old was speaking to
us through the holy Prophets, but they were the mediators, through whom (that is) He spake
to us. But the Gospel preaching will be conceived of as properly His Word (for not through
another do we find that it came to us but through Himself) wherefore when Incarnate He
says, I That speak am present.

And Paul too will testify saying in the Epistle to the Hebrews, God Who in many ways and
modes of old spake unto the fathers by the prophets in these last times spake unto us by
the Son. Himself therefore a worker unto teaching hath the Son come to us at the last
periods of the world: therefore will the Gospel teaching be rightly called His Word. It
were meet then more nakedly and openly to say, Ye who have accepted the faith in Me, and
though late have yet acknowledged Him Who of old is preached unto you by the law and
prophets, no longer be ye attached to the types through Moses, nor be persuaded to cleave
to the shadows of the law, nor lay it down that the power of salvation consists wholly in
them, but in the spiritual teachings, and in the Gospel preachings that are through Me.
But it was not unlikely, yea rather it was undoubted, that receiving but now and hardly
the faith, and having their understanding shaken and ready for unsettling, they would not
endure such words, nor would at all hold out, in that they are ever prone to anger, but as
though the all-wise Moses were hereby insulted, and put to nought because the things
appointed to them of old through him were despised:----they would have turned readily to
their proper daring and, ever set upon agreeing with him, thought nothing of any longer
believing on Christ.

Economically therefore and veiledly as yet arranging the things of Moses in contrast with
His own words, i. e., putting the Gospel preaching over against the law, and setting the
new teachings in very superior place to the elder ones. He says, If YE continue in My
Word, verily ye are My disciples, for they who are pre-eminent in perfect faith and
unhesitatingly receive into their mind the Gospel teaching, not unduly regarding the
shadow of the law, are in truth disciples of Christ, while they who act not thus, mock
themselves, not able to be in truth disciples, and therefore falling away from salvation.
And verily the blessed Paul to those who after the faith foolishly desire to be justified
by the law, openly writes, Ye were set free 23 from Christ, whosoever of you are justified
by the law, ye fell from grace. Wondrous then and precious is single faith and the desire
closely to follow Christ, drawing the shadows of the law unto the knowledge of Him, and
transfashioning the things darkly spoken unto spiritual instruction. For through the law
and the prophets is preached the Mystery of Him.

32 And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free. Obscure as yet and not
wholly clear is the word, none the less it is replete with force akin to those before it,
and though after other fashion wrought will go through the same reflections. For it too
persuades those who have once believed gladly to depart and remove from the worship
according to the law, instructing that the shadow is our guide to the knowledge of Him,
and that leaving the types and figures, we should go resolutely forward to the Truth
Itself, i. e., Christ the Giver of true freedom and the Redeemer. Ye shall know therefore
(He says) the Truth, if ye abide in My Words, and from knowing the Truth ye shall find the
profit that is therefrom. Take then our Lord as saying some such thing as this to the Jews
(for we ought I think to enlarge our meditation on what is now before us, for the profit's
sake of the readers): A bitter bondage in Egypt, (He says) ye endured, and lengthened toil
consumed you who had come into bitter serfdom under Pharaoh, but ye cried then to God, and
ye have moved Him to mercy towards you, bewailing the misfortunes which were upon you ye
were seeking a Redeemer from Heaven: forthwith I visited you even then, and brought you
forth from a strange land, liberating you from most savage oppression I was inviting you
unto freedom.

But that ye might learn who is your aider and Redeemer, I was limning for you the mystery
of Myself in the sacrifice of the sheep, and bidding it then to pre-figure the salvation
through blood: for ye were saved by anointing both yourselves and the doorposts with the
blood of the lamb. Hence by advancing a little forth from the types, when ye learn the
Truth, ye shall be wholly and truly free. And let none (He says) doubt about this. For if
the type was then to you the bestower of so great goods, how does not the Truth rather
give you richer grace? Nothing forbids us to suppose that such were what Jesus says to the
Jews, if His Discourse run out to a wide range of thought: but it is probable that some
other meaning also beams forth from what is before us. The Law through Moses typified
washings and sprinklings, and moreover whosoever it befell to be caught and to fall into
the pit of sin, him it bade to sacrifice a bullock or sheep and thus to abate the blame
for each one's transgressions. But nought avail these things for the washing away of sin;
for they will never liberate the condemned from blame, nor shew free from obligation of
punishment those by whom the Divine Law has been trampled. For what will sacrifice of oxen
profit a transgressor, what gain will any one find in sacrificing of sheep? For what will
be pleasing from these, as far as pertains to transgression of the Law, to God who has
been insulted? for hear Him saying, Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of
goats? and yet besides openly to the Jews, Gather your whole burnt offerings unto your
sacrifices and eat flesh, for I spake not unto your fathers concerning whole burnt
offerings or sacrifices, but this thing commanded I them saying, Judge righteous judgment.
Wholly profitless therefore is the approach through blood nor can it wash away the spot
stained into the man through sin.

You will have another proof when you see Him say to Jerusalem the mother of the Jews
through the voice of Jeremiah, Why wrought My beloved abominations in Mine House? shall
prayers and holy flesh take away from thee thine evil or shall thou escape in these? For
it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should talte away sins, as Paul
saith. But that they concerned about a fruitless worship, and zealous to perform the
offerings through blood, or their gifts, to no useful end, were with reason sent away from
the Divine court, He will teach again saying by the mouth of Isaiah, Tread My courts no
more: if ye offer fine flour, it is vain, incense is an abomination unto Me. Not in these
therefore (I mean the ordinances of the Law) is true salvation, nor yet will any one win
hence the thrice-longed for freedom, I mean from sin. But bounding a little above the
types, and surveying the beauty of the worship in Spirit and acknowledging the Truth, that
is Christ, we are justified through faith in Him, and justified we pass over unto the true
liberty, ranked no more among slaves as heretofore, but among the sons of God. And John
will testify this, saying of Christ and of them that believe on Him, But as many as
received Him, to them He gave power to become children of God.

Profitably then doth our Lord and Christ not suffer them who believe on Him to marvel any
more at the shadows of the law (for there is nought in them that profits or that bestows
the true freedom) but bids them rather know the Truth; for through this does He say that
they shall be entirely freed, according to the mind of the words. 33 We be Abraham's seed
and have never been in bondage to any man, how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free? They
laugh at the promise of our Saviour, rather they even take it ill, as though they were
insulted. For that which has no share at all of bondage, how will it need (he says) of One
Who calls us unto freedom, and Who gives us a something over and above what is in us
already. But they know not, though wont to have a conceit of being wise, that their
forefather Abraham was of no notable father after the world, nor yet of highest repute
among those who are admired in this life, but was ennobled by faith only in God: Abraham
believed God, it says, and faith was imputed to him for righteousness and he was called
the Friend of God. Thou seest then very clearly the cause of his illustriousness. For
since he was called the friend of God who ruleth over all, he hath become on this account
great and famed, and his faith was imputed to him for righteousness, and the righteousness
which is of faith hath become to him the cause of freedom towards God 24, Therefore when
he by believing was justified, that is, when he shook off the low birth that is from sin,
then did he appear illustrious and of noble birth and free.

Foolishly then do the Jews spurning the grace which freed the very founder of their race
advance only to him who was freed thereby, but considering neither whence is or whither
looks what is illustrious in him, they dishonour the Giver of what is most excellent in
him, and forsaking the Fount of all nobility they think greatly of him who is participate
thereof; but they will be caught vainly boasting of being never in bondage to any man and
what they say about this will be no less proved to be false. For they were in bondage to
the Egyptians for 430 years and through the grace that is from above were hardly delivered
from the house of bondage and from the iron furnace, as it is written, to wit the tyranny
of the Egyptians. And they were in bondage both to the Babylonians and Assyrians, when
they removing the whole country of Judaea and Jerusalem itself transferred all Israel to
their own land. In no respect then was the speech of the Jews sane: for besides being
ignorant of their truer bondage, that in sin, they utterly deny the other ignoble one and
have an understanding accustomed to think highly about a mere nothing.

34 The Saviour answered them Verily verily I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the
servant of sin. He lifts out of their innate unlearning these who were carnal and looking
only to things corporal, He transfers them to the more spiritual and removes them to a
mode of teaching wholly unpractised and unwonted, shewing them their hidden and through
long ages unknown bondage; and that they falsely say, To no man have we ever been: in
bondage He wisely passes by, neither does He say that to no purpose do they boast of the
nobility of their forefather, in order that He may not appear to be inciting to what was
not right them who were already prone and much inclined to anger, but advances to this
needful matter and one which they needed verily to learn, that he is sin's bondman who
doth it, as though He said thus: A compound animal, sirs, is man upon the earth, of soul
that is and body, and bondage as to the flesh pertains to the flesh, but that of the soul
and which takes place upon the soul, has for its mother, the barbarian, sin. The freedom
then of man from bondage after the flesh the authority of the rulers will effect, but that
which sets free from sin, is meet to be spoken of God Alone and will belong to none other
save He.

Therefore He persuades them to think reasonably and to desire real and true freedom, and
thus to seek at length not the illustriousness of ancestors which nothing profits them
thereto, but rather God Alone authoritative over His own Laws, the transgression whereof
creates sin the foster mother of bondage to the soul. But our Lord Jesus Christ seems to
be privily as yet and full veiledly convicting them of vainly thinking great things of a
man and imagining that the blessed Abraham was altogether free. For His shewing generally
that he who doeth sin is the bondman of sin, makes Abraham himself to have been once the
bondman of sin and within its toils. For he was justified not as being himself righteous,
but when he believed God then called to the freedom of being justified. And not at all as
quarrelling with the fame of the righteous man do we say this, but since none among men is
without trial of the darts of sin, he too who is reputed great was surely brought under
the yoke of sin as it is written, There is none righteous, for all sinned and have come
short of the glory of God. But the glory of God besides other things is the being utterly
incapable of falling into sin, which has been reserved for Christ Alone, for He Alone has
been free among the dead: for He did no sin albeit being among the dead, that is reckoned
among men over whom the death of sin once had mastery.

Therefore (for I will sum up the aim of what has been said) the Lord was hinting that the
blessed Abraham himself too having been once in bondage to sin, and through faith alone to
Christ-ward set free, availed not to pass on to others the spiritual nobility, since
neither is he master of the power of freeing others who put away the bondage of sin not by
himself nor was himself on himself the bestower of freedom, but received it from Another,
Christ Himself Who justifieth. 35 The servant abideth not in the house for ever, the Son
abideth ever. Having shewn that unfree and in bitter bondage is he who is subject to sin,
He adds profitably both what will happen to him who hath loved bondage, and what again
shall be their lot from God who have chosen to live after the Law and have therefore been
ranked among the sons of God. For the bondman, He says, abideth not in the house for ever
(for indeed and verily he shall go forth into the utter darkness there to pay the penalty
of his enslaved life) but the Son abideth ever. For they who have once enjoyed the honour
of adoption, shall abide in the presence of God, in no time thrust forth from the court of
the firstborn, but rather passing a long and lasting season therein. And you will
understand accurately what is said, if you bring forward and read the Gospel parable
wherein Christ (it says) shall set the goats on the left, the sheep on the right, and that
He shall send away the goats saying, Depart ye cursed into the everlasting fire, prepared
for the devil and his angels: and shall gather the sheep to Himself and receive them
graciously, crying out, Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world. For by the goats is meant the unfruitful multitude of
them who love sin, by the sheep, the choir of the pious, laden with the fruit of
righteousness, as though wool.

Therefore he who beareth the disgrace of bondage shall be thrust forth of the kingdom of
heaven like some useless and basest vessel: every one who loveth to live aright shall be
received and shall abide therein, and be ranked therefore among the sons of God. And it
seems likely that the Lord in saying these things hints also to them, that if they admit
not the freedom that comes through faith, they shall surely depart forth of the holy and
Divine court, that is, the Church, as is said by one of the Prophets, I will drive them
out of Mine House. For that that which was afore spoken has reached its fulfilment, the
very nature of things attests: for the daughter of Zion was left as a tent in a vineyard,
as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as it is written: wholly fallen and destroyed is the
temple, and themselves have gone forth not abiding therein for ever and in their place
hath arisen and been raised up for Christ's sake the Church of the Gentiles, and they
abide in it ever who have been called to Divine sonship through faith. For the boast of
the Church will never cease nor ever fail, for the souls of the righteous depart from
things of earth and are safely moored at the city that is above, the heavenly Jerusalem
the church of the firstborn, which is our mother, according to the voice of Paul.

But since examining into what was said about bondage, and desiring every way to track out
the truth, we have said that Abraham himself was numbered among bondmen, and not even him
did we put outside the boundary of our contemplations, because of its being said more
generally by Christ, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin: come now let us
following out our own words make clear the force of what has been said. The Jews were
thinking great and excessive things, putting forward Abraham as a sort of head and fount
of their nobility: but that it needed to seek to be freed through the grace that is from
above, they admitted not even in bare thought, fools and blind according to the Saviour's
voice. Needs therefore does Christ design to shew that what is by nature bond, sufficeth
not for the freedom of others nor yet one whit for its own, for how can that which lacks
freedom as to its own nature, give freedom to itself, and that which borrows its own grace
from another, how will it suffice for the supply of another? To Him Alone Who is by Nature
God of God will befit and rightly be ascribed the power of freeing. Clear proof therefore
gives He that all must needs be and be acknowledged bond that abides not for ever, i. e.
to which belongs not being always the same. For every thing created will surely be also
subject to corruption, and that which is so will be bondservant of God Who called it into
being. For respecting the creatures it was said to Him, For all things are Thy servants.
And this which is said is general, and one portion of the whole is the blessed Abraham, or
again the whole human nature. But the abiding for ever gives a clear sign that the Only-
Begotten God Who shines forth from God is King and Lord of all. For to whom will pertain
the being always the same and being established in firm tenure of the everlasting good
things, save to Him Who is by Nature God? in this way doth the Divine Psalmist too shew us
that the creature is bond, God the Word which beamed of God the Father King and Lord.

For extending the mental viewfrom a portion to the whole of creation, he says of the
heavens and of Him Who is by Nature Son, They shall perish but THOU abidest, and they all
shall wax old like a garment and as a covering shalt Thou change them and they shall be
changed, but THOU art the Same and Thy years shall not fail. Seest thou how by this too
exceeding well and true confessedly it is that the bond abideth not for ever but the Son
abideth and that the non-abiding is a proof that that is bond of which it is predicated?
And by analogy the other, i. e., the abiding for ever will be a clear token of His being
Lord and God of whom such a word may be properly and truly said. Sufficient then were the
Psalmist to testify to what we say, but since (as it is written), In the mouth of two or
three witnesses shall every word be established, come let us besides him shew the blessed
Jeremiah too thinking and saying consonantly. For he shewing that every thing that is made
from its being corruptible is therefore bond, and shewing that the Son because He abides
and is Unchangeable is by Nature God and manifestly therefore also Lord, says thus to Him,
For THOU endurest for ever and we perish for ever.

For at every time will the originate be corruptible by reason of its having been made,
even though by the Power of God it decay not, and God will ever sit, what is here called
sitting indicating the stability and unchanged fixedness of His Essence together with Its
concentration and Its illustriousness in Royal Appearance and Reality, for sitting has an
image of these. Therefore (for I will go back to what I said at the beginning) from his
not abiding for ever He shews that the blessed Abraham is corruptible and originate, for
he has died and passed in a way out of the Lord's house, i. e. this world. By the same
reasoning He would have us conceive of him as bond also and so not competent to bestow
freedom upon others, and from the Son abiding ever, He says that He is clearly God of God
by Nature, whereon will surely follow the being King and Lord. And what is the economy
from the above mentioned distinction, shall be shewn in the next that in order follows. 36
If the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed. To Him Alone (He says) Who is by
Nature Son of a Truth free and remote from all bondage is found to pertain the power of
freeing and to none other whatever save He. For as He because He is by Nature Wisdom and
Light and Power, makes wise the things recipient of wisdom, enlightens those that lack
light and strengthens those that want strength; so because He is God of God, and the
Genuine and Free Fruit of the Essence That reigns over all, He bestows freedom on
whomsoever He will. For no one can become truly free at his hands who has it not of
nature. But when the Son Himself wills to free any, infusing His own Good, they are called
free indeed, receiving the Dignity from Him who hath the Authority and not from any of
those who have been lent it from Another and been ennobled with so to say foreign graces.

Most needful therefore is the preceding explanation, and great the profit which arises
from that distinction to those who are zealous to hear it more diligently. For it was
right to understand why it should be needful to seek for nobility towards God and to learn
that the Son can make us free. Let them then who rejoice in the dignities of the world use
themselves not to be swollen with lofty conceits nor let them run down the glory and grace
of the saints, even though they should be little and spring of little after the flesh: for
not the seeming to be illustrious among men suffices to nobility before God, but splendour
in life and virtuous ways render a man free indeed and noble. Joseph was sold for a bond-
slave, as it is written, but even so was he free, all radiant in the nobility of soul:
Esau was born of a free father and was really free, but by the baseness of his ways he
shewed a slave-befitting mind. Noble therefore before God, as we have just said, are not
they who have riches and are flooded with superfluity of substance, and rejoice in the
bright honours that are in the world, but they who are radiant with holylife and an
ordered conversation.

37 I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye are seeking to kill Me because My word hath
no place in you. Having manifoldly shewn them that the boast and conceit from their being
of kin to Abraham is utterly empty and devoid of any good. He says this, that they may
seek the nobility that is true and dear to God. For God looks not on the flesh according
to what is said by our Saviour Christ Himself, The flesh profiteth nothing, but rather
accepts and accounts worthy of all praise nobility of soul and knows that they have true
kinship, whom likeness of work or sameness of manners gathering unto one virtue, causes to
be ennobled with equal forms of good and similarly the contrary. Since how are WE who are
of earth and compacted of clay, as it is written, called kin of the Lord of all, as Paul
saith, Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God? For confessedly have we been made
kin to Him, because of the Flesh That pertains to the Mystery of Christ. But it is
possible in another way also to see this truly existing. For by thinking His Thoughts and
resolving in no cursory manner to live piously, we are called sons of God who is over all,
and forming our own mind after His Will so far as we can, thus are we to likeness with Him
and most exact similitude truly kin.

But that God does take likeness and accurate similitude of works or of ways to have the
force of kinship, we shall clearly know, if we look closely into the holy words, and
explore the Holy Scripture. In the times therefore of Jeremiah the prophet, there was a
certain false prophet, Shemaiah the Nehelamite 25 by name, belching things forth of his
own heart as it is written and not out of the Mouth of the Lord. And since there was some
other great multitude of lying witnesses and false prophets going about among the people,
and drawing them away to what was not meet, God the Lord of all was at last rightly
indignant. Then after having expended many words upon Shemaiah, and declared more in
detail what penalties he should pay for his deed of daring, at last He adds, and I will
visit upon Shemaiah and his seed, who do like deeds with him 26. Hearest thou how He sees
kindred in like attempts? for how could He who judgeth right punish along with Shemaiah
his seed after the flesh, not like-mannered with himself as regards baseness, albeit He
says clearly by the Prophet Ezekiel, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. In order then
that one may not imagine anything of this sort respecting him, having said, his seed, He
immediately added, Who do like deeds with him, defining kindred to be in sameness of
action.

But that we may see that what is said is true of the very Jews, let us call to mind the
words of John (I mean the holy Baptist), for shewing that rotten was their boast of
kindred with Abraham, he says, And say not within yourselves, We have Abraham for a
father, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up seed unto Abraham.
For since it had been said unto him by God, Multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the
stars of the heaven, the people of the Jews resting upon the Promiser being surely and of
necessity unlying, were thinking big, and expecting that in no wise could they fall from
the kinship to their ancestor, that the Divine Promise may be kept. But the blessed
Baptist annihilating this their hope, very clearly says, God is able of these stones to
raise up children unto Abraham: And with these falls in the blessed Paul too thus saying,
For not all they of Israel are these Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham
are they all children. It being shewn therefore on all sides to be true that God
acknowledges kindred in manners and habits, clearly vain is it to boast of holy and good
ancestors, and be left behind and depart far away from their virtue.

With reason therefore does the Lord say to the Jews, I know that ye are Abraham's seed yet
do ye seek to kill Me because My Word hath no place in you. Yea (He says) when I look to
the flesh alone and consider whence the people of the Jews sprang, then I see that ye are
of the seed of Abraham, but when I look at the beauty of his conversation and disposition,
I see that ye are aliens and no longer kin. For ye are seeking to kill Me, albeit your
forefather, of whom ye now think great things, was no murderer, and worst and most lawless
of all, on no just pretexts am I persecuted by you, but ye desire to kill Me in utter
injustice: for for this reason alone did ye devise to destroy Me, because My Word hath no
place in you, albeit calling you to salvation and life. It hath no place in you, because
of the sin that indwelleth in you, and which suffereth not advice and counsel for good to
have any room in you. Murderers therefore alike and most unrighteous judges are the Jews,
determining that they ought to award to death Him who nothing wronged them but rather was
engaged in doingthem good and zealous to save them. How then are they any longer kin to
the righteous and good Abraham, who are so far behind the good that was in him, and have
strayed so far from like conduct with him, as one would admit were distant and say were
parted vice from virtue?

38 I speak that which I have seen with My Father, do YE then do that which ye heard 27
from the 28 Father. Uncontained by the Jews did He say that His word was, and having said
that this was the only reason why they were incited against Him, yea rather convicting
them of desiring even to kill Him, needs does He add these things also, and why, I will
set forth. He was not ignorant, it appears, that some of the Jews would rise up and
dispute His words and belching forth from their innate madness, say again, Not for nothing
(as Thou sayest) do some desire to slay Thee, for reasonable causes are they stimulated
thereto, pious is their motion and their zeal free from all just accusal: for without
place in them is Thy word seeing Thou madest it dissonant from God. Thou teachest us (he
says) another error and drawest us off from the way of the Law, and removest us to that
which pleases Thyself Alone. The Jews then whispering these things privately or imagining
them in their hearts, the Lord again meets them, knowing the motions of their imaginations
within (for He is Very God) and therefore says, I speak that which I have seen with My
Father, I beheld close the Nature of Father, I saw ofttimes of Myself and in Myself Him
Who begat Me, and am a Beholder of the Will That is in Him.

I saw, by innate knowledge that is, of what works He is the Lover, and these I speak to
you, I shall not be found to say ought dissonant to Him, nor have I appointed any thing
other than pleases Him. To that was I earnest in calling My hearers, not departing from
what is Mine (for in Me are His, and Mine again in Him) but if I Who am thus by Nature and
am in all things Co-willer with God the Father, appear to you to be not true and I am
adjudged to be leading you astray from the Divine Teachings, let the charge be dismissed,
cast away suspicion; do that which ye heard from the Father, He hath spoken to you by
Moses, accomplish the command, ye heard Him say, The innocent and righteous slay thou not,
how then are ye seeking to kill Me and breaking the Father's commandment?

But in another way again will we take the words, Do YE then do that which ye heard from
the Father. He has spoken to you (He says) through the Prophets, ye heard Him say, Rejoice
greatly o daughter of Zion, shout o daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy King cometh unto
thee, He is just and having salvation and mounted upon a colt the foal of an ass, and
again through the voice of Isaiah, O Zion that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the
high mountain, o Jerusalem that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength,
lift ye up, be not afraid, behold your God, behold the Lord cometh with strength and His
Arm with rule, behold His Reward with Him and His work before Him: like a shepherd shall
He feed His flock, He shall gather the lambs with His Arm and shall comfort those that are
with young. Obeying therefore the commands of the Father, receive Him Who is fore-
announced to you; honour with faith Him Who has been fore-preached. Give at least to the
words of the Father to prevail in you.

But we must know that He saya that the Law is God the Father's, albeit spoken by Him
through Angels 29, not putting Himself outside of the law-giving, but He yielding to the
surmises of the Jews who believed that it was so, and economically, does not oppose
Himself to their surmise, for ofttimes doth He shame them, since they receive Him not, for
He brings before them the Father's Name. 39 They answered and said unto Him, Our father is
Abraham. O great unlearning and mind withered unto unbelief and looking to only wrangling!
For while our Saviour Christ consenteth and saith openly, I know that ye are Abraham's
seed, they persist in the same, and as though one were holding out and contradicting and
saying that they were not of Abraham's seed after the flesh, they again say, Our father is
Abraham, and blush not going oft through the same words, who think that they ought not to
yield even to Battus , but are but most excellent emulators of that man's babbling. But
perchance they had some most unreasoning plea for this, and what, we will tell. For when
the Lord says, I speak that which I have seen with My Father, they did not imagine that He
hereby intended God the Father, but thought that He spoke of either the righteous Joseph,
or some other of those on the earth, ridiculing and deeming and thinking exceeding little
things of Him. For the holy Virgin conceived in her womb the Divine Babe, not of marriage
but of the Holy Ghost, as it is written. And the blessed Joseph knowing not at first the
mode of the economy was minded to put her away privily, as Matthew saith.

But it was not by any means unknown by the Jews that the holy Virgin conceived in her womb
before marriage and coming together, yet they understood not that it was of the Holy
Ghost, but thought that she had been corrupted by one of the nation, whence they had no
right conceptions of Christ. For they deemed that He was a child begotten of some other
father who had corrupted (according to their madness) the holy Virgin, and that He was
attributed only to Joseph, being a bastard and not son in truth. When then He says, I
speak that which I have seen of My Father, they took in no thought at all of God, but that
He meant some one of earthly fathers and fancied that He was trying to move them from
their honour to their ancestor, and suspecting that He was apportioning to His own kin the
honour due to another, and that most ancient glory of the Patriarchate, they meet Him in a
more contentious and vehement manner saying, Our father is Abraham. For just as though
they were saying, Albeit, sir, you drench us with clever words, and din around us with
portentous marvels, and strike us hard with mighty deeds beyond speech, you will not
remove us from our pristine boast, we will not register Thy father as the head of our
race, we will not attribute such a glory to another, nor will we take new ancestors in
exchange for the elder ones.

It is no marvel, nor hard to believe, that the Jews should fall into such folly, when they
imagined that He is even a bare man and in manifold wise holding Him cheap would call Him
the carpenter's son and rank as though nought the King and Lord of all. But that they had
no right opinion as to the holy Virgin also, as though she had been denied, we shall know
full well by what follows. 40 Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye
would do the works of Abraham; but now ye seek to kill Me, a Man That have told you the
truth which I heard of God, this did not Abraham. Soothing, so to say, by every way and
word the boldness of the Jews, Christ speaks to them veiledly, not applying open
conviction but mingled with gentle speech, and in lowly wise and manifoldly charming their
wrath. For since He sees that they are most exceeding silly and understand nought of what
is said, He makes His Discourse free at length from any veil and bared of all covering.
For it needed (He says) it needed, if ye believed that being classed among Abraham's
children was the highest honour, that ye should be zealous to imitate his manners: it
needed that ye should track the lovely virtue of your ancestor, it needed that ye should
be zealous of and love his obedience. For he heard God say, Get thee out of thy country
and from thy kindred and come into the land that I will shew thee. And nought delaying in
the fulfilment of what was bidden him, he hastens forthwith from his country, and relying
on the mercy of Him who bade him, arrives in a foreign land. And being at the very goal so
to speak of life and passing his hundredth year, he heard, Thou shalt have a seed, and
nothing doubting, he gave fervent faith to Him That spake, heeding not the weakness of his
flesh, but looking at the Strength of Him That spoke to him.

He heard that he was to offer to God his beloved for a sacrifice and forthwith he strove
against the longings of nature, and made his love for the youth second to the Divine
Command. In you I find all contrary to these, for ye are seeking, He says, to kill Me
because I have told you things from God, this did not Abraham. For he insulted not by his
unbelief Him who spake to him, he sought not to do any thing that grieved Him. How then
are ye any more Abraham's children being as far distant from his piety as the difference
of your actions shews? But observe how He arranges His speech: for He said not that they
heard the truth from the Father but from God, since, as we just now said, from their
innate unbounded folly they were dragged down to untrue conceptions of Him, thinking that
He was speaking of some one of earthly fathers. And exceeding well does He making His
Discourse about dying call Himself Man, in every way retaining to Himself incorruptibility
as God by Nature yet not severing from Himself His own Temple, but as being One Son, even
when He became Man, yet says that He spake the Truth. For not in types any more and
figures does the Saviour's word teach us to practise piety, but persuades us to love the
spiritual and true worship. But when He says, Which I heard from the Father, we must by no
means be offended. For since He says that He is Man, He speaks this too as befits man: for
as He is said as Man to die, let Him be said as Man to hear also. But it seems likely that
in the word, heard, He puts the inherent knowledge which He has of the will of His own
Progenitor, for so is the wont of the Divinely inspired Scripture oftentimes to say of
God. For when it says And the Lord heard, we do not by any means attribute to Him a
separate and distinct sense of hearing, like as there is in us, for the Divine Nature is
simple and remote from all compound, but we take rather hearing as knowledge and knowledge
as hearing; for in the simple there is nought compound as we have said.

And to these meanings we will add a third, not departing from fit aim. God the Father said
somewhere of Christ to the most holy Moses, A Prophet will I raise them up (i. e. to them
of Israel) from among their brethren like unto thee and I will put My words in His Mouth
and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. For this reason therefore did
our Lord Jesus Christ say that He heard from the Father the Truth and spake it to the
Jews, at once convicting them of fighting against God the Father and shewing clearly that
Himself is He whom the Lawgiver promised before to raise up to them. 41 YE do the deeds of
your father. Having shewn that the Jews are utterly of other manner than their ancestor,
and far removed from his piety, He with good reason strips them of their empty fleshly
boast. And saying openly that they ought not any longer to be enrolled among his children,
He allots them to another father like unto them, and affixed similitude of deeds as a sort
of bond of kindred, teaching that the good ought to be joined to the good, and deciding
that it is meet that they who live ill should have as fathers those who have been
condemned for the like. For like as they who have chosen to live excellently, and are
therefore even now called saints, may without hazard call God their Father, so to the
wicked is the wicked one rightly ascribed as father, seeing that they form the image of
his wickedness and perversity in their characters. For not altogether is he who begot of
himself conceived of as father by the Divine Scripture, but he too who has any conformed
to his own character, of whom he is said to be therefore father. Thus does the Divine Paul
too write to certain, for in Christ Jesus through the Gospel did I beget you. As then (as
we said) some are conformed both to God and to the holy fathers through likeness in
manners and holiness; so to the devil too and to those like in conduct to him are some
rendered like-minded, suffering this through their own depravity.

Therefore to the saints the saints are fathers, but to the wicked the wicked who betake
themselves to them, most befittingly. And the one, who in holiness take the impression (so
to say) of the Divine Form on their own souls, and have the confidence that befits own
sons, will with reason say Our Father which art in heaven: the bad again will be ascribed
to their own father, begotten as it were through likeness unto him unto equal depravity
with him. To the Jews therefore Christ allots and names another father than the holy
Abraham, and who, He does not as yet clearly say. They said therefore to Him, We have not
been born of fornication, we have one Father, God. Already now have I said that the all-
daring Jews were easily sick with bitter and unholy conceptions of our Saviour Christ. For
they thought that the holy Virgin had been corrupted, I mean the Lord's Mother, and that
she was taken with child, not of the Holy Ghost or of operation from above but of one of
those on the earth. For being wholly disbelieving and without understanding, they either
made no account of the prophetic writings, albeit openly hearing, Behold a Virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, or looking only to the flesh and following the order of events
usual with us, and not thinking of the Nature which works beyond speech, to which nought
is hard to perform, every thing that seems good to Him easy; they deem that no otherwise
could a woman conceive in her womb, save by coming together with her husband and
cohabitation. Sick of such a suspicion, the wretched ones dared to accuse the Birth
through the Spirit of the Divine and wondrous Offspring. But when putting them forth from
kindred with Abraham He allots them to another father, very angry are they, and
unrestrainedly foaming up their inherent anger, they reviling say, WE have not been born
of fornication, we have one Father, God. For they say darkly somewhat of this sort, Two
fathers hast Thou, neither wert Thou born of honourable marriage, WE One, God.

But let a man see and consider clearly how great their disease of madness in this too. For
they who by reason of the naughtiness and depravity that was in them are by the Righteous
Judge put not even among the children of Abraham, advance to such a measure of madness, as
to call even God their Father, perhaps because of what is said in the books of Moses,
Israel is My son, My first-born, not admitting into their mind what is said through the
voice of Isaiah, Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord. And one may reasonably
enquire what it was that induced the Jews at present to say no longer, Our father is
Abraham, or, We have one father Abraham, but to go straight up to One God. To me they seem
to have had some thought of this kind. For when they, smiting with their railing the Lord,
as though His mother had been dishonoured before marriage, were ascribing to Him two
fathers, needs did they seek to take the title of one as an ally of their own ill-will.
For whereby they affirm that they have One Father God, by the same they indirectly
reproach the Lord of having two, setting the One over against two. For they imagined that
if they said, We have one father Abraham, they would be altogether denying the rest, I
mean Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve who were from him, which if they should do, they
would seem to be arming themselves against themselves and to fight with their own choice
and boast, estranging Israel from the nobility of the fathers, and thereby to go along
with the Lord's own saying. Escaping then the damage that thence seemed to accrue to them,
they no longer say, We have one father Abraham, but rather ascribe to themselves One
Father God, spell-subdued by only the most unsure pleasures of railing, that they might
fall into yet greater blame, craftsmen of all impiety, yet daring to take as their father
the Enemy of all impiety.

42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father ye would love Me, for I proceeded forth
from God and am come. The Lord does not hereby take away the power of any to be ranked
among the sons of God, but shews rather to whom will pertain the boast of it, and that it
will be found rather in the saints, and convicts the insulting Jew of being mad. For I
(saith He) am sprung the One and True Son by Nature, from God the Father that is; and all
are adopted, formed after Me and mounting up unto My Glory, for images are always after
their archetypes. How can ye then (He says) at all be numbered among the children of God,
who are minded not only not to love Him Who beamed forth from God and transfashions unto
His own Form those who believe on Him, but do even dishonour Him, not in one way but in
many? and they who receive not the Image of God the Father, how will they be at all formed
after Him? Besides it is lawful (He says) not to any chance persons without blame to call
God their Father, but those in whom the beauty of piety towards Him shall flash forth,----
those I deem and none other will it befit. I have come from Heaven to counsel you things
most excellent, and My Word invites you to the being formed after God.

But if it be verily your aim and longing to have God as your Father, surely ye would have
loved Me your Guide and Teacher on such a path, Who give you the opportunity of likeness
to the One and True Son, Who through the Holy Ghost render conformed to Himself those who
receive Him. For he (He says) who altogether boasteth of ownness toward God, how would he
not love Him That is of God? how (tell me) will he honour the tree who foolishly loatheth
the fruit that is its offspring? Either therefore, He saith, make the tree good and his
fruit good, or make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. If therefore the Tree (i. e.
God the Father) be Noble and ye know how to draw the Splendour thereof on your own heads,
why loved ye not the Fruit that is of Him, believing It to be such as He is? The verse
before us therefore hath at once a bitter reproof of the Jews (for it shews them to be
liars, for when they essay to call God their Father, they are far away from the virtue
that pertains to those who are called to this, because they love not Him Who is of God by
Nature) and at the same time it profitably brings in the mention of His own Ineffable
Generation, that they might be caught in impiety in this too, calling Him ill-born and
bastard.

For if the saying, I proceeded forth from God, signifies His Ineffable and Eternal
Generation from the Father; adding I am come, [He shews] His appearance in this world with
Flesh. And surely one will not say that God the Word then first beamed forth from God the
Father, when He became Man (for so it seemed to some of the unholy heretics) but he will
rather take it as is meet and will conceive of it piously. For not because He joined the
words, (I mean I proceeded forth and I am come) will the Word of the Father be co-eval in
time with the Birth of the Flesh, but to each of the things indicated will we keep its
proper meaning. For we believe the first Generation of the Word conceived of as from God
to be without beginning and above mind; wherefore it hath been set forth first in the
words, I proceeded forth from God; the second, i. e., that after the Flesh, for neither
have I come of Myself but He sent Me. I was Incarnate as you, that is, I became Man, in
the Good Pleasure of God the Father came I in this world to declare to you the things of
God and to tell to those who know not, what it is that pleases Him. But ye loved not (He
says) Him Who from the Divine counsel was revealed to you as Saviour and Guide.

How then will ye any more be called children of God, or how will ye gain the grace of
ownness with Him, if ye honour not Him That is of Him? It is likely that the Lord again
means something by this and aims by such words also to silence the people of the Jews who
are vainly yelping at Him. And what it is that is intended we will briefly say. Many among
the Jews esteeming no whit the Divine Fear, but admiring and accepting only honours from
men, and overcome by base lucre, dared to prophesy, speaking out of their own heart and
not out of the Mouth of the Lord, as it is written. And verily the Lord of all Himself
chid them saying, I sent not the prophets, I spake not to them yet they prophesied; yea,
He threatened to do dread things to them crying out, Woe unto them that prophesy out of
their their own heart and see nothing at all. Such an one was that Shemaiah who to the
words of Jeremiah opposed his own lie and having taken the yokes of wood and shattered
them, said, Thus saith the Lord, I will shatter the yoke of the king of Babylon. Since
then when our Saviour Christ says, But now ye seek to kill Me a man who have told you the
truth which I heard of God, the Jews began to murmur, and not knowing Who He is in truth,
to imagine that He is some false prophet and to be therefore hardened, so as to even dare
to revile Him, and so angrily desire to kill Him as even to press on to do
it:----profitably does He again terrify them, saying that He came not of Himself as was
the wont of them who prophesy falsely, but was sent by God, that by the same He both
putting aside the reputation of being a false prophet and teaching that they will incur no
slight doom, who not only dishonour Him that has been sent by God the Father, but also
dare to devise murder against Him, might cut short their unbridled daring.

This then for what is before us. But it is probable that the heretic will make what has
been said the food of his innate impiety. He will haply accuse the Essence of the Only-
Begotten and will deem that it is in lower case than the Father's because of His saying
that He had been sent by Him. But let such an one consider the mode of the economy but now
spoken, and remember Paul crying aloud of the Son, Who being in the Form of God thought it
not robbery to be Equal with God, but emptied Himself taking servant's form, made in the
likeness of men and found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself made obedient unto death.
But if He hath of His own will humbled Himself, the Father, that is, consenting and Co-
willing it, what accusal will He have, going through the whole mode of the Economy unto
its consummation, in any reasonable way? But if because of His saying that He has been
sent, you deem that the Son lies in lower case than the Father, how (tell me) doth He That
is in lower case, according to thy unlearning, work in all exactitude the things of God?
For where does the lesser shew itself in Him who possesses perfectly all that belongs to
His own Progenitor and the fullest God-befitting Authority?

Therefore He will not be conceived of as less on account of being sent, but being God of
God by Nature and verily, since Himself is the Wisdom and Power of the Father, He is sent
to us as from the sun the light which is spread abroad from it, in order that He might
make wise that which lacks wisdom, and that thus at length that which was weak might be
lifted up through Him and strengthened unto the knowledge of God the Father and recovered
unto all virtue. For all things most fair beamed on the human race through only Christ.
There is therefore nothing at all of servile kind in Christ, but it belongs only to the
form of the flesh: but God-befitting is His Authority and Power even all, even though the
language meetly conformed to the measure of lowliness take human fashion. 43 Why do ye not
understand My speech? because ye cannot hear My word.

What we have oftentimes said we say again for profit to the readers: for there is no harm
in our discourse going very frequently through what may profit. It is the custom then of
our Saviour Christ not altogether to accept from those who disbelieve Him, the word that
boiled up from their tongue, but to look rather on the hearts and reins, and to make His
replies to the thoughts that were yet revolving in the depth of their hearts. For man who
knows not the thoughts that are in another, will needs admit the uttered word, but God not
so; for He knowing all things, takes the thought for the voice. When then the Lord said to
the Jews that He had come not of Himself, like them who of their own mind and not of the
Divine Spirit advance to prophesy, but that He was sent by God, they again imagine, or
reason among themselves, or secretly whispering one to another said, Many Prophets have
spoken the things of God and brought words from the Spirit unto us, but we find nought
among them of such sort as is in this man's words. For He bears us wholly away from the
worship after the Law and removes us to some other polity and introduces to us a strange
transition of life. Dissonant therefore manifestly and irreconcileable is His Discourse
with that of those of old.

Since He beheld them thinking (as is likely) these things, shewing that He is by Nature
God and knoweth the counsels of the hearts, He takes hold of it and says, Why do ye not
understand My Speech? because ye cannot hear My Word. I am not ignorant (He says) that ye
cannot comprehend My Speech, or doctrine; but I will tell you the reason and will clearly
set before you what is the hindrance. Ye cannot hear My Word. He says, ye cannot,
convicting them of impotence unto perfect good, because of their being fore-mastered by
their passions. For the love of pleasure unnerves the mind, and the unbridled tendency
towards evil yet weakening the sinew of the heart, renders it feeble and most spiritless
to the power of performing any virtue. Being therefore fore-weakened by tendencies to vice
and tyrannized by your own passions ye cannot, He says, hear My Word. For right are the
ways of the Lord, as it is written, and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors
shall become impotent in them. Akin to this will you find that too which was in another
place said to the Pharisees, How can ye believe which receive honour one of another and
seek not the honour that, cometh from the only God? for verily in this their not being
able to believe shews the voluntary weakness of their understanding or that their mind has
been before overcome of vainglory.

And we find again that that is true of the Jews which has been spoken by the voice of
Paul, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him. Since therefore they were natural, they deemed that He was foolishness
Who was inviting them to be saved, and was teaching them the path of an excellent
conversation, and directing them full well unto the power of pleasing God who delighteth
in virtue, to whom be all honour, glory, might, for ever and ever. Amen.


SOURCES AND CREDITS
===================

Where each text comes from, and the licence under which it may be reused.

COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, BOOKS I–V English translation: an older public-domain
translation as collected in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from
the Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions.
SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the
translator’s own. No Greek or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English
version has been made. Licence: Public domain.