Commentary on the Gospel of John 6 part 4/6

But it is necessary to know that, just as the marvelous powers manifested in the healings performed by the Savior — being symbols of those who are ever being delivered from every disease and infirmity by the Word of God — nonetheless, having also occurred corporeally, benefited [people] by calling those who were healed to faith, so also the washing through water, being a symbol of the cleansing of the soul that washes away every stain arising from wickedness, nonetheless, in itself, for the one who presents himself to the divinity of the power invoked in [the name of] the adorable Trinity, is the beginning and source of divine gifts — for there are diversities of gifts.

The account recorded in the Acts of the Apostles bears witness to my words, concerning how vividly, at that time, the Spirit came upon those being baptized — the water having prepared beforehand a way for those approaching genuinely — so that even Simon the magician, astonished, wished to receive this grace from Peter, [but] wished [to obtain] this most righteous thing through the mammon of unrighteousness.

And this too must be noted: that John's baptism was inferior to the baptism of Jesus, given through his disciples. Those, at any rate, in the Acts who had been baptized into John's baptism, not even having heard whether there is a Holy Spirit, are baptized a second time by the apostle.

For the [washing] of regeneration did not occur with John, but with Jesus, [through] his disciples; and the washing called [the washing] of regeneration occurs with the renewal of the Spirit — the Spirit that is also now borne, since it is from God, upon the water, but not coming upon everyone after the water. And these things [suffice] for the examination of the matters in [the Gospel] according to Matthew.

Let us now also consider Mark's account, who recorded that John, in his preaching, said these things according to 'There comes after me one who is mightier than I'; for this is equivalent in force to 'He who comes after me is mightier than I'; but no longer the same in 'I am not worthy, stooping down, to loose the strap of his sandals.'

For it is one thing to carry the sandals, obviously already loosed from the feet of the one wearing them, and another to stoop down and loose the strap of the sandals. And it follows, since none of the evangelists is mistaken nor lies, as believers would say, that the Baptist said both things at different times, moved by a different sense each time.

For it is not concerning the same things, as some suppose, that those who recorded these events were carried along differently, not being accurate in memory as to each of the things said or done. For it is a great thing to carry Jesus' sandals, and it is also a great thing, having stooped down toward his bodily nature which came to be somewhere below, in order to behold the image below, to loose each of the obscure things concerning the mystery of the incarnation, as if it were the strap of the sandals.

For there is one bond of obscurity, just as there is one key of knowledge, which not even the greatest among those born of women is by himself able to loose or open, since only the one who bound and shut grants to whom he wills the power to loose and open the strap of the sandals and the things that have been shut.

But if the topic concerning the sandals is mystical, this too must not be passed over. I think, then, that the incarnation — when the Son of God takes on flesh and bones — is one of the sandals, while the descent into Hades, whatever Hades may be, and the journey to the prison with the spirit, is the remaining one.

Concerning the descent into Hades, it is said in the fifteenth Psalm, 'You will not abandon my soul to Hades'; and concerning the journey in prison with the spirit, it is said in Peter's catholic epistle: 'For, he says, having been put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which also he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared.'

He, then, who is able worthily to set forth the accounts of both sojourns, is capable of loosing the strap of Jesus' sandals — himself too, in mind stooping down and descending together with the one who has descended into Hades, and descending from heaven and from the mysteries concerning the divinity of Christ to his sojourn among us which necessarily came to be, when he put on man as a sandal.

And he who put on man also put on the dead man; for, 'To this end Christ died and rose, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living'; and for this reason he put on both the living and the dead, that is, the one on earth and the one in Hades, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

Who then is able, having stooped down, to loose the strap of such sandals, and having loosed it, not to let it go, but by a second capability to take it up again and carry it, by carrying about in memory the things that have been understood?

Let it not be left unexamined that the phrase, without 'stooping,' is likewise said in Luke and John. And perhaps it is possible, having stooped down, to loose according to what was said before; but it is also possible, while maintaining the height of stature that comes from the elevation of reason, to find the loosing of the sandals that are bound up in the inquiry, so that, having loosed these, one may see the Word stripped of the sandals, naked of the lesser things by himself, the Son of God.

But John does not record that being unworthy is the same as not being capable. For it is possible for one who is not worthy to become capable; and it is also possible for one who is worthy not yet to be capable.

For if the gifts are given for what is profitable, and not only according to the proportion of faith, it would be the work of a God who loves mankind — foreseeing the harm that would follow from conceit or being puffed up — sometimes not to give capability even to the one who is worthy; but it is proper to the goodness of God to prevail in doing good to the one benefited, anticipating the one who will be worthy, and adorning him with capability before he becomes worthy, so that after the capability he may come to becoming worthy, and not entirely, starting from being worthy, outstripping the giver and forestalling his graces, come to become capable.

John, then, says according to the three Synoptics that he is not capable, but according to the Gospel of John that he is not worthy. But he who said he was not yet capable is not excluded from having become capable, even though he was not yet worthy; and again, he who said he was not worthy, not being worthy, had not yet arrived at having become worthy.

Unless, indeed, someone will say that, since the mortal nature does not attain to a worthiness commensurate with the loosing and carrying, it arrives at some point at truly holding the fact that it never becomes capable of loosing the strap of the sandals nor worthy of the same. But as much as we may attain, there still remain the things not yet understood, since 'When a man has finished, then he begins, and when he has ceased, then he will be at a loss,' according to the Wisdom of Jesus son of Sirach.

Let us further discuss the sandals named in the plural by the three evangelists, comparing those with the one named in the singular by the disciple John: 'For I am not,' he says, 'worthy that I should loose the strap of his sandal.'

Perhaps, then, being overcome by the grace of God, he received a gift, not yet being, so far as it depended on himself, worthy to loose the strap of one of the two sandals, having understood his sojourn among men, concerning which he also bears witness; but since he lacked the apprehension concerning what followed, not knowing whether Jesus is the one who was also to come there, where he was about to be beheaded and go from the prison, or whether he ought to expect another — for this reason, hinting even now at the perplexity that would later be more clearly shown to us, he says, 'I am not worthy that I should loose the strap of his sandal.'

But he who thinks this was said more elaborately will bring together into one the plural 'sandals' and the singular 'sandal,' so that he means, as it were: 'I am in no way worthy to loose the strap, not even from the beginning, of even the one sandal'; or in this way too it is possible for what is said among the four evangelists to be brought together into one.

For if John understood the things concerning his sojourn here, but was perplexed concerning what followed, he speaks truly both in saying he is not capable of loosing the strap of the sandals — for he does not loose both, having loosed the strap of the one — and he speaks truly also in saying the strap of the sandal, singular, since, as has been said before, he is still in doubt as to whether he himself is the one who is coming, or another, the one to be expected there also.

And concerning 'There stands one among you whom you do not know,' this must be understood concerning the Son of God — the Word, through whom all things came to be, subsisting substantially according to the underlying reality, being the same as Wisdom. For this one has passed through the whole of creation, so that whatever comes to be always comes to be through him, and it may always be true concerning absolutely anything that 'All things came to be through him, and without him not one thing came to be.'

And 'You have made all things in wisdom'; but if he has passed through the whole of creation, it is clear that he also stands among those who ask, 'Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?' — the same Word standing in the midst, firm, established by the Father everywhere; or let 'There stands one among you' be understood as meaning that, among you men — because you are rational — he stands in the midst, in that the ruling faculty is shown to be in the middle of the whole body, being, according to the Scriptures, located in the heart.

Those, then, who have the Word in their midst, but do not comprehend his nature, nor from what fountain and origin he has come, nor how he ever came to subsist in them — these, though having him in their midst, do not know him. But John knows him. For the phrase 'whom you do not know,' spoken reproachfully to the Pharisees, shows that the Word had come to be known carefully by the one who had come to know what was unknown by them.

For this reason the Baptist, knowing him, knows that the one who is in their midst is coming after him, that is, after him and after the teaching given by him in baptism, sojourning among those who have washed according to reason. But the same thing is not signified by the word 'after' here, and when Jesus sends us after himself.

For there, we are commanded to come after him, so that, walking in his footsteps, we may arrive at the Father; but here, it is said so that it may be shown that, after the teachings of John (since 'this one came that all might believe through him'), he sojourns among those who have prepared themselves beforehand, purified in advance through the lesser things also for the perfect Word.

First and foremost, then, the Father stands, being unchangeable and unalterable; and his Word also stands, always in the act of saving, even if he becomes flesh, even if he is in the midst of men, not being apprehended, indeed not even being seen. And he also stands teaching, calling all to drink from his unstinting fountain: 'For Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.'

But Heracleon says that 'There stands one among you' means 'He is already present, and is in the world and among men, and is already manifest to you all.' By this he takes away what has been set forth concerning his having passed through the whole world.

For it must be said to him: when is he not present? When is he not in the world? And this while the Gospel says, 'He was in the world, and the world came to be through him.' And for this reason these people also, to whom the Word says, 'whom you do not know,' do not know him, since they have not yet gone out of the world.

'And the world did not know him.' What period of time did he ever cease being among men? Or was he not in Isaiah, who says, 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me,' and 'I became manifest to those who did not seek me'? Let them say whether he was not also in David, who says, not of his own accord, 'But I have been established king by him upon Zion his holy mountain,' and all the things that are recorded in the Psalms as spoken from the person of Christ.

And what need is there for me to demonstrate each point in detail, since the things clearly able to prove it are hard to enumerate, that he was always among men, in order to refute what has been unsoundly said — 'He is already present and is in the world and among men' — as an interpretation offered by Heracleon of 'There stands one among you'? But it is not implausibly said by him that 'He who comes after me' shows that John is the forerunner of Christ; for truly, as it were, he is a servant running before his lord.

But much more simply he has taken 'I am not worthy that I should loose the strap of his sandal' to mean that the Baptist confesses through this that he is not worthy even of the most menial service toward the Christ. Yet, after this interpretation, he has not implausibly put forward: 'I am not capable, that on my account he should come down from his greatness and take flesh as a sandal, concerning which I am not able to give an account, nor to narrate or explain the economy concerning it.'

But more boldly and in a more grandiose manner the same Heracleon, taking 'the sandal' to mean 'the world,' has passed over into declaring the more impious view that all these things must be understood also concerning the person signified through John.

For he thinks that the demiurge of the world, being lesser than the Christ, confesses this through these words — which is the most impious of all things. For the Father who sent him, the God of the living, as Jesus himself testifies, of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, who is for this reason Lord of heaven and earth, because he has made them — this one alone is good and greater than the one sent.

But even if, as we have said before, it has been understood more grossly by Heracleon that the whole world is a sandal of Jesus, I do not think we ought to agree. For how, with such an interpretation, will 'Heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool of my feet' be preserved — testified to as spoken by Jesus concerning the Father? 'Do not swear,' he says, 'by heaven, because it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet.'

But how, with the world being understood as a sandal of Jesus, will he be able to establish 'Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord'? Nevertheless it is worth pausing over whether the sayings we have set forth must be understood in the sense that the Word and Wisdom has passed through the whole world, and the Father is in the Son, as we have set out; or whether the one who has primarily girded the whole creation about himself, alongside the Son's being in him, has granted this also to the Savior, as being, after himself, a second and God Word, namely to have arrived throughout the whole of creation.

And especially for those able to contemplate the unceasing motion of so great a heaven, which turns about with itself, from east to west, so great a multitude of stars, it will be a matter worthy of inquiry as to what is the power inherent, so great and so vast, in the whole world. For it would perhaps not be pious to dare to say that this power is other than the Father and the Son. [Chapter I.] These things happened in Bethabara, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

That in almost all the copies it stands, 'These things happened in Bethany,' we are not unaware; and this appears to have been the case even earlier still; indeed, in Heracleon too we have read 'Bethany.' But we have been persuaded that one ought not to read 'Bethany,' but 'Bethabara,' having gone to the places for the purpose of investigating the traces of Jesus and his disciples and the prophets.

For Bethany, as the evangelist says, the homeland of Lazarus and Martha and Mary, is fifteen stadia distant from Jerusalem; from which the Jordan river is far off, at a broad estimate about one hundred and eighty stadia. But neither is there a place of the same name as Bethany near the Jordan; and they say that Bethabara is shown by the bank of the Jordan, where they record that John baptized.

And the interpretation of the name is consistent with the baptism of the one who prepares for the Lord a people made ready; for it is translated 'house of preparation,' while Bethany means 'house of obedience.' For where else ought the messenger sent before the face of the Christ, to prepare his way before him, to baptize, than in the place of preparation?

But what homeland is more fitting for her who chose the good part which shall not be taken away from her, Mary, and for Martha who was distracted on account of receiving Jesus, and for their brother, called friend by the Savior, Lazarus, than Bethany, the house of obedience? One must not, then, disregard the precision concerning names, for the one who wishes to understand the sacred writings without omission.

That errors have occurred in the Greek copies concerning names in many places, one might be persuaded of this also from these very examples in the Gospels. The account concerning the swine that were hurled down and drowned in the sea by the demons has been recorded as having happened in the...

...the region of the Gerasenes; but Gerasa is a city of Arabia, having neither sea nor lake nearby. And the evangelists would not have stated so obvious and easily refutable a falsehood, being men who accurately knew the things concerning Judea. But since we found...

'Into the region of the Gadarenes' — this too must be addressed. For Gadara is indeed a city of Judea, near which are the famous hot springs, but there is by no means in it a lake bordered by cliffs, or a sea.

But Gergesa, from which there is an ancient city near what is now called Lake Tiberias, near which lies a cliff adjacent to the lake, from which it is shown that the swine were cast down by the demons. And the name Gergesa is interpreted 'dwelling of those who have been cast out,' being perhaps prophetically named, in that the citizens of the swine, having entreated him, made him depart from their borders.

The same kind of error concerning names can be seen in many places in the Law and the Prophets, as we have precisely determined by learning from the Hebrews, and by comparing our copies with theirs, attested by the not-yet-corrupted editions of Aquila and Theodotion and Symmachus.

We shall then set forth a few examples, for the sake of making those fond of learning more attentive to these matters: one of the sons of Levi, the first, is named 'Geson' in most of the copies instead of 'Gershon,' being of the same name as the firstborn of Moses, both having received their name readily on account of their sojourning in a foreign land.

Again, for Judah, the second son is said among us to be 'Aunan,' but among the Hebrews he is 'Onan,' meaning 'toil' or 'sorrow.' Further, in the departures of the sons of Israel in Numbers we found that 'They departed from Sochoth and encamped at Buthan'; but the Hebrew, instead of 'Buthan,' says 'Etham.'

And what need is there for me, lingering, to set forth more examples, when it lies open to anyone who wishes to examine and learn the truth concerning names? But one must be especially suspicious of the passages of Scripture where there is a list together of many names, as in Joshua concerning the division of the inheritance, and in the first book of Chronicles from the beginning onward around the descendants of Anah; likewise also in Ezra.

And the names must not be despised, since useful matters concerning the interpretation of places are signified by them. But it is not opportune now to examine the discourse concerning the theory of names, leaving aside the matters before us.

Let us then look at the words of the Gospel passage. 'Jordan' is interpreted 'Descent.' Akin to this name, so to speak, is the name 'Jared,' which is also itself interpreted likewise, since he was born to Mahalalel, as it is written in the book of Enoch — if anyone is pleased to accept that book as holy — in the days of the descent of the sons of God upon the daughters of men; which descent some have supposed to signify allegorically the descent of souls upon bodies, having supposed that 'daughters of men' is said more figuratively of the earthly tabernacle.

But if this is so, what river would be 'Descent' — to which he who comes must be cleansed, having descended not his own descent but that of men — other than our Savior, who separates those allotted their portion by Moses from those receiving their own portions through Jesus?

It is the streams of this river, which has descended through him, that gladden, as we find in the Psalms, the city of God — not the perceptible Jerusalem (which has no river lying beside it), but the unblemished Church of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus our Lord being the chief cornerstone.

'Jordan,' then, must be understood as the Word of God who came to be and tabernacled among us; and 'Jesus' as the one who allotted the human nature which he has taken up, which is also the chief cornerstone — a nature which, itself too, having come to be in the deity of the Son of God through being taken up by him, is washed, and then makes room for the unmixed and guileless dove of the Spirit, bound to him and no longer able to fly away: 'For upon whomever,' he says, 'you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, this is he who baptizes in the Holy Spirit' — for this reason having received the Spirit remaining upon him, so that, the Spirit remaining in him, he might be able to baptize those who come to him.

But beyond the Jordan, in the regions inclining outside Judea, in Bethabara, John baptizes, being the forerunner of him who has come to call not the righteous but sinners, teaching that those who are strong have no need of physicians, but those who are ill — for indeed the washing is given for the forgiveness of sins.

It is likely that someone who has not understood the various conceptions of the Savior will stumble at the interpretation given concerning the Jordan, on account of John's saying: 'I baptize in water, but he who comes after me is mightier than I; he will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.'

To him it must be said that, just as the Word of God, being a drink, is for some water, for others wine gladdening the heart of man, for others blood, on account of 'Unless you drink my blood, you have no life in yourselves'; and being called food, is not understood in the same way as both living bread and flesh — so likewise he himself is baptism of water and of spirit and of fire, and for some also of blood.

Concerning the last baptism, as some say, he speaks in the saying: 'I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I constrained until it is accomplished!' In accord with this, the disciple John, in his epistle, recorded the Spirit and the water and the blood, the three coming to be as one. And Christ, being confessed to be also a way and a door, is clearly not yet a door to one for whom he is a way, nor still a way to one for whom he is already a door.

All, then, who are being instructed in the beginning of the oracles of God, by the voice of him who cries in the wilderness, 'Make straight the way of the Lord,' approaching, beyond the Jordan, near the 'house of...,' in order that they may be able, through this preparation, to make room for the spiritual Word coming to be in them through the illumination of the Spirit.

Continuing then, with respect to what lies before us, gathering together the matters concerning the Jordan, we shall understand the river more precisely. God, then, through Moses, brings the people across the Red Sea, making the very water a wall for them on the right and on the left; but through Joshua he brings them across the Jordan.

Paul, having encountered the writing — no longer warring according to the flesh, for he knew that the Law is spiritual — teaches us spiritually to have understood the matters concerning the passage through the Red Sea, saying in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: 'For I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from a spiritual rock that followed them.'

'And the rock was Christ.' In accordance with these things, let us also ask to receive from God the ability to understand spiritually the passage through the Jordan by means of Joshua, saying that Paul would have said also concerning this: 'I would not have you ignorant, brothers, that our fathers all passed through the Jordan, and all were baptized into Jesus in the spirit and in the river.'

Joshua, who succeeded Moses, is a type of the one who succeeded the economy through the Law with the evangelical proclamation of Jesus the Christ. Therefore, even though all those fathers were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, their baptism has something bitter and salty about it, since they still feared their enemies, and cried out to the Lord and said to Moses: 'Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us out to die in the wilderness? Why have you done this to us, bringing us out of Egypt?'

But the baptism into Joshua, in the truly sweet and drinkable river, has many features surpassing that other, since piety towards God is now being made distinct and taking on its proper order: for the ark of the covenant of the Lord our God and the priests and Levites go before, the people following the ministers of God, and that company following those who make room for the commandment concerning purity. And Joshua says to the people: 'Purify yourselves against tomorrow, for the Lord will do wonders among us.'

And he commands the priests, with the ark of the covenant, to go before the people, at which time also the mystery of the Father's economy concerning the Son is made manifest — the Son being exalted above by him who grants the gift, 'that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.'

For through these things it is signified, in what is recorded concerning Joshua: 'And the Lord said to Joshua: On this day I will begin to exalt you before the sons of Israel.' And one must listen to our Lord Jesus saying to the sons of Israel: 'Come near here, and hear the word of the Lord our God; by this you shall know that the living God is among you' — for by being baptized into Jesus we shall know that the living God is among us.

And there, having kept the Passover in Egypt, they made the beginning of the exodus; but with Joshua, after the passage of the Jordan, on the tenth of the first month, they encamped at Gilgal, when for the first time it was necessary, having taken the Passover sheep, to name those who were to feast together after the baptism of Joshua. And by the sharp rock, under Joshua, the sons of Israel — as many as were still uncircumcised of those who had come out of Egypt — were circumcised; the Lord removing the reproach of Egypt on the day of the baptism into Joshua, when Joshua purified the sons of Israel.

For it is written: 'And the Lord said to Joshua son of Nun: On this day I have removed the reproach of Egypt from you.' Then the sons of Israel kept the Passover, on the fourteenth day of the month, far more joyfully than that in Egypt, when they also ate, from the grain of the holy land, unleavened and new bread, food better than the manna.

For it is not when they have received the promised land that God feasts them with the lesser things, nor do they, through so great a Joshua, obtain inferior bread. This is clear to one who has understood the true holy land and the Jerusalem above. For this reason it also stands in the same Gospel: 'The fathers in the...'