Augustinus. Hoc autem dixit, quia videbat eos ad sempiternum interitum praedestinatos, non ad vitam aeternam sui sanguinis pretio comparatos: oves enim sunt credendo, pastorem sequendo. AUG He saw that they were persons predestinated to eternal death, and not those for whom He had bought eternal life, at the price of His blood. The sheep believe, and follow the Shepherd. Theophylactus. Postquam vero dixerat: non estis ex ovibus meis, consequenter induxit eos ut oves eius efficiantur, dicens oves meae vocem meam audiunt. THEOPHYL After He had said, You are not of My sheep, He exhorts them to become such: My sheep hear My voice. Alcuinus. Idest, praeceptis meis ex animo obediunt. Et ego cognosco eas, idest eligo: et sequuntur me, hic mansuetudinis et innocentiae viam incedendo, et post ad gaudia aeternae vitae intrando; unde sequitur ego vitam aeternam do eis. ALCUIN i.e. Obey My precepts from the heart. And I know them, and they follow Me, here by walking in gentleness and innocence, hereafter by entering the joys of eternal life And I give to them eternal life. Augustinus. Ista sunt pascua de quibus supra dixerat: et pascua inveniet. Bona pascua vita aeterna dicitur, ubi nulla herba arescit, totum viret. Vos autem calumniam propterea quaeritis, quia de vita praesenti cogitatis. Sequitur et non peribunt in aeternum: subaudi tamquam eis dixerit: vos peribitis in aeternum, quia non estis ex ovibus meis. AUG This is the pasture of which He spoke before And shall find pasture. Eternal life is called a goodly pasture: the grass thereof wither not, all is spread with verdure. But these cavilers thought only of this present life. And they shall not perish eternally; as if to say, you shall perish eternally, because you are not of My sheep. Theophylactus. Sed quomodo videmus Iudam periisse? Quia non permansit usque ad finem. Christus autem de perseverantibus hoc dixit; nam si quis separatur ab ovium grege, desinens sequi pastorem, confestim incurrit periculum. THEOPHYL But how then did Judas perish? Because he did not continue to the end. Christ speaks of them who persevere. If any sheep is separated from the flock, and wanders from the Shepherd, it incurs danger immediately. Augustinus. Quare autem non pereant, subdit et non rapiet eas quisquam de manu mea: de illis enim ovibus de quibus dicitur: novit dominus qui sunt eius, nec lupus rapit, nec fur tollit, nec latro interficit. Securus est de numero illorum qui pro eis novit quid dedit. AUG And He adds why they do not perish: Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand. Of those sheep of which it is said, The Lord knows them that are His, the wolf robs none, the thief takes none, the robber kills none. Christ is confident of their safety; and He knows what He gave up for them. Hilarius de Trin. Consciae potestatis haec vox est: at vero ut in natura licet Dei, tamen ex Deo intelligenda sit eius nativitas, subiecit pater meus quod dedit mihi, maius omnibus est. Non occultat ex patre esse se natum: quod enim a patre accepit, accepit nascendo, non postea; tamen ex alio est dum accepit. HILARY This is the speech of conscious power. Yet to show, that though of the Divine nature He has His nativity from God, He adds, My Father which gave Me them is greater than all. He does not conceal His birth from the Father, but proclaims it. For that which He received from the Father, He received in that He was born from Him. He received it in the birth itself, not after it; though He was born when He received it. Augustinus in Ioannem. Non enim crescendo, sed nascendo aequalis est qui semper natus est de patre filius, de Deo Deus. Hoc est ergo quod dedit mihi pater, quod maius omnibus est, ut scilicet sim verbum eius, ut sim unigenitus filius eius, ut sim splendor lucis eius. Ideo ergo nemo rapit oves meas de manu mea, quia nec de manu patris mei; unde sequitur et nemo potest rapere de manu patris mei. Si manum intelligamus potestatem, una est patris et filii potestas, quia una divinitas: si autem manum intelligamus filium, manus patris est ipse filius: quod non ita dictum est tamquam Deus pater habeat corporis membra; sed quod per ipsum facta sunt omnia. Nam solent et homines dicere manus suas esse alios homines per quos faciunt quod volunt. Aliquando et ipsum opus hominis manus hominis dicitur, quod fit per manum; sicut dicitur quisque agnoscere manum suam, cum id quod scriptum sit, agnoscit. Hoc autem loco manum patris, et filii intelligimus potestatem: ne forte cum hic manum patris ipsum filium dictum acceperimus, incipiat carnalis cogitatio etiam filii quaerere filium. AUG The Son, born from everlasting of the Father, God from God, has not equality with the Father by growth, but by birth. This is that greater than all which the Father gave Him b; viz. to be His Word, to be His Only-Begotten Son, to be the brightness of His light. Wherefore no man takes His sheep out of His hand, any more than from His Father’s hand: And no man is able to pluck them out of My Father’s hand. If by hand we understand power, the power of the Father and the Son is one, even as Their divinity is one. If we understand the Son, the Son is the hand of the Father, not in a bodily sense, as if God the Father had limbs, but as being He by Whom all things were made. Men often call other men hands, when they make use of them for any purpose. And sometimes a man’s work is itself called his hand, because made by his hand; as when a man is said to know his own hand, when be recognizes his own handwriting. In this place, however, hand signifies power. If we take it for Son, we shall be in danger of imagining that if the Father has a hand, and that hand is His Son, the Son must have a Son too. Hilarius. Ut enim per corporalem significationem, virtutem possis eiusdem nosse naturae, commemorata est filii manus, manus patris, quia natura et virtus patris est etiam in filio. HILARY The hand of the Son is spoken of as the hand of the Father, to let you see, by a bodily representation, that both have the same nature, that the nature and virtue of the Father is in the Son also. Chrysostomus in Ioannem. Deinde ut non aestimes quia ipse quidem imbecillis est, propter patris autem virtutem in tuto sunt oves, subdit ego et pater unum sumus. CHRYS Then that you may not suppose that the Father’s power protects the sheep, while He is Himself too weak to do so, He adds, I and My Father are one. Augustinus. Utrumque audi, et unum et sumus, et a Charybdi et a Scilla liberaberis. Quod dixit unum, liberat te a Sabellio. Si unum, non ergo diversum; si sumus, ergo pater et filius. AUG Mark both those words, one and are, and you will be delivered from Scylla and Charybdis. In that He says, one the Arian, in we are the Sabellian, is answered. There are both Father and Son. And if one, then there is no difference of persons between them. Augustinus de Trin. Unum enim sumus dictum est: quod ille hoc et ego secundum essentiam, non secundum relativum. AUG We are one. What He is, that am I, in respect of essence, not of relation. Hilarius de Trin. Haec igitur quia haeretici negare non possunt, impietatis suae mendacio neganda corrumpunt: tentant enim id ad unanimitatis referre consensum, ut voluntatis in his unitas sit, non naturae; idest, ut non per id quod sunt idem, sed per id quod idem volunt, unum sint. Sed per naturae nativitatem, dum nihil Deus in ea ex se gignendo eum degenerat, unum sunt. Dumque de manu eius non rapiuntur, non rapiuntur de manu patris; dum in operante se operatur pater, dum ipse in patre, et in eo pater est. Hoc non praestat creatura, sed nativitas; non efficit voluntas, sed potestas; non loquitur unanimitas, sed natura. Non negamus igitur unanimitatem inter patrem et filium: nam hoc solent haeretici mentiri, ut cum solam concordiam ad unitatem non recipimus, discordes eos a nobis affirmari loquantur. Sed audiant quam a nobis unanimitas non negetur. Unum sunt pater et filius natura, honore et virtute; nec natura eadem potest velle diversa. HILARY The heretics, since they cannot gainsay these words, endeavor by an impious lie to explain them away. They maintain that this unity is unanimity only; a unity of will, not of nature, i.e. that the two are one, not in that they are the same, but in that they will the same. But they are one, not by any economy merely, but by the nativity of the Son’s nature, since there is no falling off of the Father’s divinity in begetting Him. They are one whilst the sheep that are not plucked out of the Son’s hand, are not plucked out of the Father’s hand: whilst in Him working, the Father works; whilst He is in the Father, and the Father in Him. This unity, not creation but nativity, not will but power, not unanimity but nature accomplishes. But we deny not therefore the unanimity of the Father and Son; for the heretics, because we refuse to admit concord in the place of unity, accuse us of making a disagreement between the Father and Son. We deny not unanimity, but we place it on the ground of unity. The Father and Son are one in respect of nature, honor, and virtue: and the same nature cannot will different things. Lectio 6 Lecture 6 31 Sustulerunt ergo lapides Iudaei, ut lapidarent eum. 31. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him, 32 Respondit eis Iesus: Multa bona opera ostendi vobis ex Patre meo: propter quod eorum opus me lapidatis? 32. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father; for which of those works do you stone me? 33 Responderunt ei Iudaei: De bono opere non lapidamus te, sed de blasphemia; et quia tu homo cum sis, facis teipsum Deum. 33. The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone you not; but for blasphemy; and because that you, being a man, make yourself God. 34 Respondit eis Iesus: Nonne scriptum est in lege vestra, Quia ego dixi: Dii estis? 34. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, you are gods? 35 Si illos dixit deos, ad quos sermo Dei factus est, et non potest solvi Scriptura: 35. If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; 36 quem Pater sanctificavit, et misit in mundum vos dicitis: Quia blasphemas, quia dixi: Filius Dei sum? 36. Say you of him, whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into the world, you blaspheme; because I said, I am the Son of God? 37 Si non facio opera Patris mei, nolite credere mihi. 37. If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. 38 Si autem facio: etsi mihi non vultis credere, operibus credite, ut cognoscatis, et credatis quia Pater in me est, et ego in Patre. 38. But if I do, though you believe not me, believe the works: that you may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. Augustinus in Ioannem. Audierunt ergo Iudaei: ego et pater unum sumus, et non pertulerunt, et more suo duri ad lapides cucurrerunt; unde dicitur sustulerunt lapides Iudaei, ut lapidarent eum. AUG At this speech, I and My Father are one, the Jews could not restrain their rage, but ran to take up stones, after their hardhearted way: Then the Jews took up stones again to stone Him. Hilarius de Trin. Nunc haereticorum furor iam domino in caelis sedente pari infidelitate dictis non obedientes, odium impietatis exercent, verborum lapides iniciunt, et, si possent, de throno eum suo in crucem retraherent. HILARY The heretics now, as unbelieving and rebellious against our Lord in heaven, show their impious hatred by the stones, i.e. the words they cast at Him; as if they would drag Him down again from His throne to the cross. Theophylactus. Dominus autem ostendens quod nullam iustam habebant occasionem furendi adversus eum, commemorat signa quae fecerat; nam sequitur respondit eis Iesus: multa bona opera ostendi vobis ex patre meo. THEOPHYL Our Lord remonstrates with them; Many good works have I showed you from My Father, strewing that they had no just reason for their anger. Alcuinus. Scilicet in sanitatibus infirmorum, in exhibitione doctrinae et miraculorum; quae ex patre ostendi, quia eius gloriam per omnia quaesivi. Propter quod eorum opus me lapidatis? Quamvis inviti, confitentur multa beneficia sibi impensa a Christo; sed quod de sua patrisque aequalitate dixerat, pro blasphemia deputabant; unde sequitur responderunt ei Iudaei: de bono opere non lapidamus te, sed de blasphemia, et quia, homo cum sis, facis teipsum Deum. ALCUIN Healing of the sick, teaching, miracles. He showed them of the Father, because He sought His Father’s glory in all of them. For which of these works do you stone Me? They confess, though reluctantly, the benefit they have received from Him, but charge Him at the same time with blasphemy, for asserting His equality with the Father; For a good work we stone you not, but for blasphemy; and because that You, being a man, make Yourself God. Augustinus. Ad hoc responderunt quod dixerat: ego et pater unum sumus. Ecce Iudaei intellexerunt quod Ariani non intelligunt; ideo enim irati sunt, quoniam senserunt non posse dici: ego et pater unum sumus, nisi ubi aequalitas est patris et filii. AUG This is their answer to the speech, I and My Father are one. Lo, the Jews understood what the Arians understand not. For they are angry, for this very reason, that they could not conceive but that by saying, I and My Father are one, He meant the equality of the Father and the Son. Hilarius. Iudaeus dicit cum sis homo; Arianus: cum sis creatura; utrique autem dicunt facis te Deum. Subicit enim Arianus substantiae novae et alienae Deum, ut aut alterius generis Deus sit, aut omnino nec Deus; dicit enim: non est filius ex nativitate, non est Deus ex veritate; creatura est praestantior cunctis. HILARY The Jew said, You being a man, the Arian, you being a creature: but both say, You make Yourself God. The Arian supposes a God of a new and different substance a God of another kind, or not a God at all. He said, You are not Son by birth, you art not God of truth; you art a superior creature. Chrysostomus in Ioannem. Dominus autem non destruxit opinionem Iudaeorum aestimantium quod se Deo parem diceret; sed magis contrarium facit; nam sequitur respondit eis Iesus: nonne scriptum est in lege vestra? CHRYS Our Lord did not correct the Jews, as if they misunderstood His speech, but confirmed and defended it, in the very sense in which they had taken it. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, Augustinus in Ioannem. Idest, vobis data: quia ego dixi: dii estis. Deus hoc dicit per prophetam in Psalmo, hominibus. Et legem appellavit dominus generaliter omnes illas Scripturas, quamvis alicubi specialiter dicat legem, a prophetis distinguens, sicuti est: in his duobus praeceptis tota lex pendet et prophetae. Aliquando autem in tria distribuit easdem Scripturas, ubi ait: oportebat impleri omnia quae scripta sunt in lege et prophetis et Psalmis de me. Nunc vero etiam Psalmos legis nomine nuncupavit: ex quibus sic argumentatur: si illos dixit deos ad quos sermo Dei factus est, et non potest solvi Scriptura, quem pater sanctificavit, et misit in mundum, vos dicitis: quia blasphemas, quia dixi: filius Dei sum? AUG i.e. the Law given to you, I have said, you are Gods? God saith this by the Prophet in the Psalm. Our Lord calls all those Scriptures the Law generally, though elsewhere He spiritually distinguishes the Law from the Prophets. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. In another place He makes a threefold division of the Scriptures; All things must he fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Me. Now He calls the Psalms the Law, and thus argues from them; If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, say you of Him whom the Father has sanctified, and sent into tile world, you blaspheme, because I said, I am the Son of God? Hilarius. Demonstraturus quidem quod ipse et pater unum essent, in eo primo ineptia ridiculi opprobrii confutatur, cur in reatum vocaretur, quod se, cum homo esset, Deum faceret. Cum enim lex huius nominis appellationem sanctis hominibus decerneret, et sermo Dei indissolubilis confirmaret hanc impartiti nominis professionem; iam ergo non est criminis, quod se Deum, cum homo sit, faciat, cum eos qui homines sunt, deos lex dixerit. Et si a ceteris hominibus non irreligiosa huius nominis usurpatio est: ab eo homine quem sanctificavit pater, non impudenter usurpari videtur, quia Dei filium se dixerit, cum praecellat ceteros per id quod sanctificatus in filium est, beato Paulo dicente quod praedestinatus est filius in virtute secundum spiritum sanctificationis: omnis enim haec de homine responsio est, quod Dei filius etiam hominis filius est. HILARY Before proving that He and His Father are one, He answers the absurd and foolish charge brought against Him, that He being man made Himself God. When the Law applied this title to holy men, and the indelible word of God sanctioned this use of the incommunicable name, it could not be a crime in Him, even though He were man, to make Himself God. The Law called those who were mere men, gods; and if any man could bear the name religiously, and without arrogance, surely that man could, who was sanctified by the Father, in a sense in which none else is sanctified to the Sonship; as the blessed Paul said, Declared to be the Son, of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness. For or all this reply refers to Himself as man; the Son of God being also the Son of man. Augustinus. Vel aliter. Sanctificavit; idest, ut sanctus esset, gignendo ei dedit, quia sanctum eum genuit. Si autem sermo Dei factus est ad homines ut dicerentur dii, ipsum verbum Dei quomodo non est Deus? Si per sermonem Dei homines participando fiunt dii, verbum unde participatur non est Deus? AUG Or sanctified, i.e. in begetting, gave Him holiness, begat Him holy. If men to whom the word of God came were called gods, much more the Word of God Himself is God. If men by partaking of the word of God were made gods, much more is the Word of which they partake, God. Theophylactus. Vel sanctificavit eum, hoc est sanxit sacrificari pro mundo. In quo ostendit se non esse Deum sicut ceteri: nam salvum facere mundum, divinum opus est, non autem hominis deificati per gratiam. THEOPHYL Or, sanctified, i.e. set apart to be sacrificed for the world: a proof that He was God in a higher sense than the rest. To save the world is a divine work, not that of a man made divine by grace. Chrysostomus in Ioannem. Vel interim quidem, ut susciperetur sermo, humilius locutus est; postea autem ad maius eos reduxit, dicens si non facio opera patris mei, nolite credere mihi; per hoc ostendens quod in nullo minor est patre: quia enim substantiam eius impossibile erat eis videre, ab operum parilitate et identitate demonstrationem eius quae secundum virtutem indissimilitudinis est, tribuit. CHRYS Or, we must consider this a speech of humility, made to conciliate men. After it he leads them to higher things; If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not; which is as much as to say, that He is not inferior to the Father. As they could not see His substance, He directs them to His works, as being like and equal to the Father’s. For the equality of their works, proved tile equality of their power. Hilarius. Quid hic adoptio, quid indulgentia nominis loci invenit, ne ex natura Dei filius sit, cum Dei filius ex naturae paternae operibus credendus sit? Non exaequatur ac similis est Deo creatura, neque ei naturae alienae potestas comparatur. Gerere autem se, non sua, sed quae patris sunt, testatur, ne per magnificentiam gestorum naturae nativitas auferatur. Et quia sub sacramento assumpti corporis nati ex Maria hominis, Dei filius non intelligebatur, fides nobis intimatur ex gestis, cum ait si autem facio, et si mihi non vultis credere, operibus credite. Cur enim sacramentum nati hominis intelligentiam divinae nativitatis impediat, cum divina nativitas omne opus suum sub mysterio assumpti hominis exequatur? Faciens igitur opera patris, demonstrare debuit quid esset operibus credendum; nam sequitur ut cognoscatis et credatis quia pater in me est, et ego in patre. Hoc est illud Dei filius sum; hoc est illud ego et pater unum sumus. HILARY What place has adoption, or the mere conception of a name then, that we should not believe Him to be the Son of God by nature, when He tells us to believe Him to be the Son of God, because the Father’s nature showed itself in Him by His works? A creature is not equal and like to God: no other nature has power comparable to the divine. He declares that He is carrying on not His own work, but the Father’s, lest in the greatness of the works, the nativity of His nature be forgotten. And as under the sacrament of the assumption of a human body in is the womb of Mary, the Son of God was not discerned, this must be gathered from His work; But if I do, though you believe not Me, believe the works. Why does the sacrament of a human birth hinder the understanding of the divine, when the divine birth accomplishes all its work by aid of the human? Then He tells them what they should gather from His works; That you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him. The same declaration again, I am the Son of God: I and the Father are one. Augustinus in Ioannem. Non enim filius sic dicit in me est pater et ego in illo, quomodo possunt dicere homines: si enim bene cogitemus et bene vivamus, in Deo sumus, et Deus in nobis est, quasi participantes eius gratiam et illuminati ab ipso: unigenitus autem Dei filius in patre est, et pater in illo tamquam aequalis. AUG The Son does not say, The Father is in Me, and I in Him, in the sense in which men who think and act aright may say the like; meaning that they partake of God’s grace, and are enlightened by His Spirit. The Only-begotten Son of God is in the Father, and the Father in Him, as an equal in an equal.