But it is not the sin of all that is taken away by the lamb, without their feeling pain or being tormented until it is taken away. For thorns, not only sown but also deeply rooted, grow in the hands of everyone who has been intoxicated by wickedness and has lost sobriety, according to what is said in Proverbs: 'Thorns grow in the hand of the drunkard' — how much toil these plants will produce for the one who has admitted such plants into his own body, that is, of his soul, what need is there even to say? For it is necessary that the one who has allowed wickedness to penetrate so far into the depth of his own soul, so as to become himself thorn-bearing ground, be cut through by the word of the living God, which is sharper than every two-edged sword, active, and more scorching than any fire.
And it will be necessary for such a soul to have sent upon it the fire that finds the thorns, and stops right at them because of its own divinity, and does not go on to burn up the threshing floors or the standing grain of the fields. But of the lamb who takes away the sin of the world, beginning through slaughter, there are several ways — some of which can be clear to the many, while others escape the notice of so many, [being known] to those deemed worthy of divine wisdom, to whom alone they are familiar.
For why need one say through how many roads a person comes to believe among men, it still being possible for each one, while in such a body, to observe this for himself? Yet one of the roads to believing, and to the sin being taken away, is through scourges and evil spirits and most grievous diseases and most painful infirmities. Who, then, knows also the things after these?
It was necessary, for the sake of not destroying the one who seems, upon examination of the discourse, to follow the one who says, 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,' to discuss these matters more fully — so that, knowing that it is possible both to be reproved by God's wrath and to be disciplined by God's anger (because, out of his surpassing love for mankind, he allows no one to remain wholly unreproved and undisciplined), we might do everything so as not to have need of reproofs and of the discipline that comes through the most painful means.
The reader must examine what has been said by us previously, along with the citation of further examples, concerning what is signified in Scripture by the word 'world' (kosmos); for I did not think it reasonable to repeat the same things. We are not ignorant that some have understood the church alone to be meant — [the church as] the 'adornment' (kosmos) of the world — since it is also called the light of the world: 'For you,' he says, 'are the light of the world.' The church is the adornment of the world, Christ, the first light of the world, being its adornment.
It must be considered whether it is the same world of which Christ and his disciples are said to be the light. But while Christ is the light of the world, perhaps he is the light of the church; whereas when his disciples are the light of the world, perhaps they are the light of those who are called, these being other than the church — just as Paul speaks of these things in the introduction of his first letter to the Corinthians, writing: 'To the church of God, together with all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.' If, then, one says the church is called the light of the world, meaning, as it were, of the rest of the human race and of unbelievers — if he takes this prophetically, on account of the discourse concerning the end, perhaps there is room for what is said; but if he takes it as something already happening, since the light of something illuminates that of which it is the light, let them show how the rest of the race is illuminated by the church that sojourns in the world.
But if they cannot demonstrate this, let them consider whether we have not soundly understood the church to be the light, and those who are called to be the world. And the saying set down in the Gospel according to Matthew will present this narrative to the one who most carefully examines the Scriptures: 'For you,' he says, 'are the salt of the earth' — perhaps the 'earth' here being understood of the rest of mankind, whose 'salt' are those who have believed, being the cause of the world's being preserved through believing; for the end will come when the salt loses its savor and is no longer that which salts and preserves the earth — since it is clear that when lawlessness is multiplied, and love grows cold upon the earth, so that even the Savior himself brought forth a doubtful saying concerning the things in his own sojourn, saying: 'Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on the earth?' — then will be the end that was [determined] before the ages.
Let it be granted, then, that the church is called 'world' when it is illuminated by the Savior. But we are inquiring whether, according to 'Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,' one must soundly understand 'world' to mean the church — the taking away of sin being restricted to the church alone.
For how shall we explain what is said in the epistle by the same disciple concerning the Savior's being a propitiation for sins, running thus: 'And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for our sins only, but also for the whole world's'? And I think that which is in Paul is similar to this, running thus: 'who is the Savior of all men, especially of the faithful.'
Again, at this point, Heracleon — without any construction or citation of testimonies — declares that the phrase 'Lamb of God' is spoken by John as [would be spoken] by a prophet, while the phrase 'who takes away the sin of the world' is spoken as by one greater than a prophet. And he supposes that the former is said concerning his body, and the latter concerning the one within the body, on the ground that the lamb is imperfect within the genus of sheep.
Thus, likewise, the body [is spoken of] by way of comparison to the one dwelling within it. 'But if he had wished,' he says, 'to bear witness to the body concerning what is perfect, he would have said 'ram,' the one that was about to be sacrificed.' I do not, however, consider it necessary, after such lengthy examinations, to linger over the passage, contending against the things said trivially by Heracleon. Only this must be noted: that just as the world scarcely contained the one who emptied himself, so also it had need of a lamb and not a ram, that his sin might be taken away. ……