And these things [were spoken] in the treasury, in the temple, he adding to the former sayings not only these but more, up to 'Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I am.' After this saying, when they took up stones to stone him, Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple -- at which time, as he was passing by, he saw the man blind from birth, concerning whom, God granting, we shall learn when we come to that passage.
He says these things so that what follows may come to pass: 'For as he was saying these things, many believed in him' — as if they were poor people coming to the treasury, so that from there they might receive whatever they are able to receive and whatever is apportioned to them.
Many, then, believed in him, but not many knew him, since of those who have believed in him, it is those who remain in his word, truly becoming his disciples, who will know the truth; but not many of those who have believed in him remain in his word, nor do many truly become his disciples.
For very few can make room for freedom. Who, then, are those who will know him, or who lift him up? As he himself teaches, saying: 'When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he.' Now no one who is still being given milk to drink, still preparing himself for the reception of solid food, lifts him up; therefore to such a one he says: 'I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified' — to whom the minister of the word also becomes weak, as Paul says to such people: 'And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.'
The Word of God, then, making a beginning of a second set of teachings — those given in the treasury in the temple — says: 'I go away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin.'
I inquire, because of the statement 'As he was saying these things, many believed in him,' whether he does not say to all those present, 'I go away and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin,' but rather to those whom he knew would not believe, and who would therefore die in their sin and be unable to follow after him — unable because they did not wish to; for if, though wishing, they had been unable, it would not reasonably have been said to them, 'You will die in your sin.'
Someone will say to this: if he was saying these things to those who persist in not believing, how does he say to such people, 'You will seek me'? For in many places seeking Jesus is a good thing, being in a sense the same as seeking the Word and truth and wisdom.
But you will say that 'seeking' is also sometimes said of those who plot against someone, as in: 'They sought to seize him, and no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come'; and in: 'I know that you are Abraham's seed; but you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you'; and in: 'But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from the Father.'
Therefore also it is said to those who do not seek rightly, 'And you will seek me,' which is not contrary to 'Everyone who seeks finds.' And there are always differences among those who seek Jesus, since not all seek him genuinely and for the sake of their own salvation and of being benefited by him. For there are also, according to countless…
…intentions that have fallen away from the good, who seek Jesus; therefore only those who have rightly sought him have found peace, and they alone might properly be said to seek him as the Word who was in the beginning, with God the Word, and in order that he might bring them to the Father. But the Word, being present and appearing, when he is not received, threatens to depart and says: 'I go away'; and if, after his departure, we seek him, we will not find him, but we will die in our sin.
And to those who are thus disposed toward him and have not beheld him, it is said: 'Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven?' — that is, to bring Christ down; 'or, Who will descend into the abyss?' — that is, to bring Christ up from the dead.
But what does Scripture say? 'The word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart.' To these, in his love for humanity, the Savior also indicates the things concerning the kingdom of God, so that they may not seek it outside themselves nor say, 'Behold, here,' or 'Behold, there'; for he says to them: 'The kingdom of God is within you.'
And insofar as we preserve the seeds of truth and its first principles that have been sown in our soul, the Word has not yet departed from us; but if we are corrupted by the outpouring that follows wickedness, then he will say to us: 'I go away,' so that even if we seek him we will not find him, but we will die in our sin, being overtaken in it and being taken from it by those appointed to demand back the soul, according to him who said: 'Fool, this night your soul is demanded of you.'
Nor should the statement 'You will die in your sin' be passed over unexamined. If, then, it is understood more commonly, it is clear that sinners will die in their sin, while the righteous will die in their righteousness; but if 'you will die' is taken with reference to the death that is the enemy of Christ, as of one who has sinned unto death and dies, it is clear that those to whom this was said had not yet died.
And you will inquire how those who did not believe, while they were still living, are going to die at some future time. Someone will answer to this also, saying that at that time, not yet believing was not yet a sin unto death, and those of whom this discourse speaks had not yet sinned unto death; but they were living in the weakness of their soul, and that weakness was leading toward death.
For this reason also the Physician, seeing that they were ruinously ill, said, having despaired of their cure: 'I go away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin.' We have indeed said this because that weakness was, for them, unto death — having learned from Jesus the difference between illnesses.
Lazarus, too, was ill, but the Physician knew that his illness was not unto death; therefore he says: 'This illness is not unto death.' For this reason, even if we are attending to those of our own who remain in illness, let us take heed lest we fall ill unto death, the disease changing from being still curable to being incurable.
At the same time, the statement 'Where I go, you cannot come,' which follows upon 'And you will die in your sin,' will also become somewhat clearer. For when someone dies in his own sin, he cannot go where Jesus goes; for no dead person can follow Jesus: 'For the dead will not praise you, O Lord, nor all who go down into Hades; but we the living will bless the Lord.'
Further, in support of 'You will die in your sin,' you will adduce the passage from Ezekiel which reads thus: 'The soul that sins, it shall die.' For sin is the death of the soul — not, I think, every sin, but that which John calls unto death.
At the same time he also distinguishes that a certain sin is the death of the soul, and a certain sin is its weakness, and perhaps also, thirdly, a certain sin is a loss to the soul — sin, evidently, in the sense of: 'What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul, or suffers loss?' and of: 'If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss.'
To those, then, who are going to die in their sin he says: 'I go away, and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin; where I go, you cannot come'; but to Peter: 'Where I go, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow later.' For it is possible for one being discipled by Jesus to be, now, unprepared to follow him as he departs to the Father, but later, through diligence, walking in his footsteps, to follow the Teacher and to follow the word of God.
It is likely that, on account of what we suppose concerning the end, someone will pay close attention to 'Where I go, you cannot come'; and to this he will say that it is possible for one now to be unable, but later to be able; and if there is a present age and another that is to come, then those to whom it has been said, 'You cannot come,' cannot, during the present age — which is long (and there remains much time until its consummation) — come to where Jesus is, that is, where truth and wisdom and the Word are, for this is where Jesus is.
But I know that some are held fast by their own sin not only in this age but also in the age to come, as those concerning whom the discourse says: 'If anyone blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, he has no forgiveness, neither in this age nor in that which is to come.' Yet if it is not forgiven in the age to come, it does not follow that it is likewise not forgiven in the ages that come after that.
Heracleon, however, having set out the passage concerning the treasury, said nothing about it. But on 'Where I go, you cannot come,' he says: how can those who are in ignorance and unbelief and sins come to be able to be in incorruption?
Nor does he even hear himself in this. For if those who are in ignorance and unbelief and sins cannot come to be in incorruption, how have the apostles, who once were in ignorance and in unbelief and in sins, come to be in incorruption? Those, then, who have come to be in ignorance and in unbelief and in sins can come to be in incorruption if they change — it is possible for them to change. The Jews then said: 'Will he kill himself, because he says, Where I go, you cannot come?'
It is worth inquiring from what motive the Jews, moved by 'Where I go, you cannot come,' say, 'Will he kill himself, because he says, Where I go, you cannot come?' And even granting that it may be conceded that they said 'Will he kill himself?' in a more simple sense…
…how are those who are able to kill themselves — even if they do not put themselves to death nor come to be where the one who kills himself comes to be — unable to go where the one who kills himself departs? It must, then, be said in reply to these inquiries, for those who listen more carefully and deeply to what is said by the Jews in the Gospels, that it is clear that they said many things according to certain secret and reserved traditions, as though they knew things other than the common and well-worn ones.
And when we perceive those [traditions] from a comparison of the sayings, then we shall inquire whether this too was said by them concerning the Savior, seeing something more profound. And that they spoke according to reserved and not well-worn discourses is shown by the fact that they said … that the unknown one casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.
For they had certainly learned something about demons and their ruler whose name is Beelzebul; and these things are not at all to be found in the books that are in general circulation.
And the testimony of the Savior does not lie, when he speaks of Beelzebul, saying: 'If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out?' For, granting that there is a certain Beelzebul, and that the one who casts out demons by him effects, as it were, a certain division of Satan against himself, he says these things.
They were mistaken, then, in saying that demons were cast out by the Savior through Beelzebul, but they had rightly grasped that there was some Beelzebul, a ruler of demons.
But also, when they say concerning Jesus that he is John risen from the dead, or one of the prophets, they certainly hold a certain doctrine about the soul, as we examined in the sections concerning John. Such are the things they suppose concerning the Savior. And it is likely that they knew countless other things, beyond the majority, either from tradition or from apocryphal writings.
Let us see, then, also with respect to 'Will he kill himself?' whether it is possible that they did not understand it in a more common and simple sense — as of one who has taken himself out of life, either by hanging, or by the sword, or by whatever way those who dispatch themselves from this life do so — especially since they think that he himself will go away to a place where it was impossible for them to come; and if we are not superstitious about names, but look at the realities, not needing to use other names for these realities, then perhaps, so to speak, in a more divine manner Jesus killed himself. This we set forth thus: the souls of all who depart from the body are taken, when certain ones appointed for this demand them back; and it is likely that those appointed for this ministry over souls are superior beings; for the saying, 'Fool, this night your soul is demanded of you,' indicates something of this kind.
But if someone should say that this can indeed be said of the worse sort, yet not of the better and of those who have lived well, let him consider whether the Lord, declaring something exceptional beyond all who have come to be in a body concerning himself, does not say: 'No one takes my soul from me, but I lay it down of myself; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.'
For let us consider someone who, when he wishes, leaves the body and departs, not by the way that leads to death, whether by violent means or by illnesses, and who again, when he wishes, returns and makes use of the body as an instrument, which he had left behind; for of such a one we shall say that his soul is not being demanded back.
And it is indeed fitting to say of the soul of Jesus that his death came about in this way, and that he, wishing to present to the disciples the exceptional character of his departure from here, said: 'No one takes my soul from me, but I lay it down of myself.' For this neither Moses, nor any of the Patriarchs or prophets, nor any of the apostles would have said, except Jesus, since the souls of all men are taken from them.
With this understood, it can become clear what is said in this manner in Psalm 87, in the person of the Savior: 'Free among the dead.' If you attend to what is written in the Gospels concerning his departure from here, you will find that this understanding of his exodus does not conflict with what is recorded. For if, like the robbers crucified with him, he had died when the soldiers broke the legs of those who suffered, we would not say that he laid down his soul of himself, but by some ordinary way of those who die.
But now Jesus, having cried out with a loud voice, gave up his spirit; and, as a king who has left the body and acted with power and authority, doing what he judged good to do, immediately the veil of the temple was torn from top to bottom, and the earth shook, and the rocks were split, and the tombs were opened, and many bodies of the sleeping saints were raised, and, going out of the tombs after his resurrection, they entered into the holy city and appeared to many — so that the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus, seeing the earthquake and what had happened, were greatly afraid, saying: 'Truly this was the Son of God.'
Perhaps, then, it was among the traditions concerning Christ — just as his having been born in Bethlehem, and his arising from the tribe of Judah, according to the sound understandings of the prophetic words — so also concerning his death, that he would depart from life in the manner we have described; and it is likely that they knew that the one who was to depart in this way would depart to a region where it was impossible for them to come, even without understanding these things fully, so that they said 'Will he kill himself, because he says, Where I go, you cannot come?' not in the simpler sense, but according to a certain tradition concerning Christ. And even though the Jews say these things, they say them with hesitation; for 'Will he kill himself?' is of such a character.
Nor is it surprising that they were in doubt concerning Christ, since indeed also earlier, those from the crowd who heard the words of Jesus said: 'This is truly the prophet'; others said: 'This is the Christ'; but others said: 'Does the Christ, then, come from Galilee? Has not Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?' So that a division also arose in the crowd because of him.
But also, a little after those events, it is written that 'The officers answered, Never has a man spoken thus'; so that the Pharisees also said to those who marveled at his word: 'Have you also been deceived? Has any of the rulers believed in him, or of the Pharisees? But this crowd, which does not know the law, are accursed.' At this point Nicodemus also had said…
'Does our law judge a man unless it first hears from him and knows what he does?' They answered: 'Are you also from Galilee? Search and see that no prophet arises out of Galilee.'
How, then, could those who heard him saying, 'I am the light of the world; he who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,' have more simply understood that he would kill himself? To him the Pharisees said: 'You bear witness of yourself; your testimony is not true.' To whom Jesus answered, saying: 'Even if I bear witness of myself, my testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I am going.'
'You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one. And even if I judge, my judgment is true, because I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent me. And it is written also in your law that the testimony of two men is true; I am the one who bears witness of myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness of me.'
What plausibility, then, is there for supposing that he would kill himself, after words spoken in so lofty a manner as these: 'You know neither me nor my Father; if you knew me, you would know my Father also'?
For it is likely that they understood in a similar manner also, 'I go away and you will seek me, and you will die in your sin; where I go, you cannot come' — to which the Jews also answered: 'Will he kill himself, because he says, Where I go, you cannot come?' And the authority to die of his own free will, having left the body, is also very clearly manifested in the words:
'I go away.' And perhaps it is because of 'I go away' that what follows becomes 'And you will seek me.' For it is likely that even those who happened to be present would seek him who was thus departing from life; but because they were to die in their sins, they were not, even after all these things, ashamed into speaking without hesitation concerning him: 'Will he kill himself?' — asking whether they themselves would be unable to go where he departs.
But I think that, naming rather maliciously that which, according to the tradition concerning the death of Christ, had come down to them, and not glorifying the one who thus departed from life, they said, 'Will he kill himself?'
For it was possible to speak hesitantly, yet with emphasis on the glory attending his death, and, as it were, to say thus: 'Is it not that his soul, whenever he himself wishes, will go forth, the body being left behind, and for this reason he says, Where I go, you cannot come?'
At the same time, in light of what we have said concerning how he departed from life, you will also observe: 'And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve aside by themselves, and on the way said to them: Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and will deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify, and on the third day he will be raised.'
But if someone objects, citing, 'From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the chief priests and elders and scribes, and be killed,' and, 'The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised,' you will say that it was those who all cried out, 'Crucify him, crucify him,' who killed him, and who became guilty of his death, even though, anticipating the soldiers who were coming to break the legs, he cried out with a loud voice and breathed his last.
You will adduce for this the text, 'Everyone who finds me will kill me,' and, 'Everyone who kills Cain shall discharge seven acts of vengeance.' For how could 'everyone who finds Cain' kill him, when it would be one person, having got there first, who killed him? Or how could 'everyone who kills Cain' discharge seven acts of vengeance, unless many had killed him?
For 'everyone' is said with reference to a multitude. And perhaps Peter, too, taking what was said by the Savior in too human a manner, says: 'God be merciful to you, Lord; this shall never happen to you.' But the Savior, rebuking him as one who had not rightly understood what was said, says: 'Get behind me, Satan; you are a stumbling block to me, because you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.'
For thus alone will you be able to preserve the truth concerning the high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, being offered as a sacrifice to God, not by impious men, but by a pious high priest.
These things, then, we have set forth, having, to the best of our ability, closely examined the intention of those who say, 'Will he kill himself, because he says, Where I go, you cannot come?' after having heard such great words previously spoken by Jesus.
It is likely that some, taking offense at this as a forced interpretation, will think that they said 'Will he kill himself?' in a simpler sense — as though Jesus were going to kill himself and be in the region of those who have made away with themselves and who will be punished for this, while the Jews, on this account, would be unable to come to be there, because they would not be guilty of the same sin against themselves.
But let them also themselves consider whether it is possible that the Jews supposed Jesus to have said these things, condemning himself as one who would go away to a place of punishment where they could not come — as if, according to this interpretation, they were better than he; or else it will follow that one must say that, if Jesus, meaning this and wishing to kill himself, considered destroying himself better than not doing so.
Heracleon, moreover, taking 'Will he kill himself?' as having been said in a simpler sense, says that the Jews, reasoning wickedly, said these things, declaring themselves greater than the Savior, and supposing that they themselves would go to God unto eternal rest, while the Savior, having made away with himself, would go into corruption and death — a place where they did not reckon themselves to be going.
And in these very words he says: 'The Jews thought the Savior was saying, I, having made away with myself, am about to go into corruption, where you cannot come.' But I do not know how it would have been fitting for him who said, 'I am the light of the world,' and what follows, to be saying, 'I, having made away with myself, am about to go into corruption.'
But if someone says that the Savior did not say these things, but that the Jews merely supposed it, it is clear that he will say that the Jews thought concerning him that … those who make away with themselves are destroyed, and that he did this nonetheless, believing that he would be destroyed and punished — which was in every respect foolish. 'And he said to them: You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.'
And earlier he had said: 'He who is of the earth is of the earth, and speaks of the earth; he who comes from heaven is above all; what he has seen and heard, this he testifies.' If, then, he who is of the earth speaks of the earth, and he who comes from heaven testifies to what he has seen and heard, you will then inquire whether being 'of the earth' is the same as being 'from below,' or something different.
At the same time, you will observe that there Scripture did not say: 'He who is from heaven is from heaven, and speaks from heaven'; for perhaps the Savior was not from heaven, especially insofar as he was the firstborn of all creation. For as to 'from heaven' — the second man was from heaven, as Paul also says somewhere: 'The first man was from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.'
And here, too, you will consider whether it says the same thing in 'You are from below,' and 'You are of this world,' or whether being 'of the earth' is something different from being 'of this world.' You will inquire similarly also concerning 'I am from above,' and 'I am not of this world'; for it is worth seeing what it is to be 'from above,' and what it is not to be 'of this world.'
See, then, whether it is not the one who has taken on an earthly generation and bodies, by having left behind the better things, who is 'of the earth' — one who, insofar as he is of the earth, speaks of the earth, being unable to see or say anything loftier; and this same one is also 'from below.'
There is, however, a different conception of 'from below' and 'of the earth.' For 'below' is understood not only with reference to a certain place, but also with reference to doctrines and thought; and everyone who employs such doctrines and thought as are 'from below' is himself 'from below.'
But also the visible world, having come to be material for the sake of those who had need of a material life, has various places, all of which, in comparison to the immaterial and invisible and incorporeal realities, are 'below' — not so much in place as in their contrast to the invisible realities.
But insofar as it is considered together with the places of the world, there would be certain places that are below and others above; for the things around the earth are below, but the heavenly things are above, so that, according to this, the one who is 'from below' is altogether of this world, but the one who is 'of this world' is not altogether 'from below.'
For see whether the citizen of the heavenly realities is in a certain sense of this world, yet not of those things that are locally 'below.' Nevertheless, he too, in comparison with the intelligible realities, is 'from below'; for everyone who is a citizen of the things that are seen and passing and temporary is 'from below,' even if, in a comparison of places, he happens to be among the very highest.
It is possible, however, for one who is from below, from this world and from the earth, to change and become one of those from above, no longer from this world; and for another, while being from this world, to be from heaven.
So he says to the disciples: 'You were of the world, and I chose you out of the world,' and 'you are no longer of the world'—the lost one—he came to transfer those below, and those registered as citizens among those below, to the things above.
For he who descended into the lower parts of the earth is himself the one who did so for the sake of those in the lowest parts of the earth; but he also ascended far above all the heavens, making a way for those who wish and who genuinely become his disciples, the road leading up to the places above all the heavens, that is, to what is outside bodies.