Tractates on the Gospel of John 106.1–107.8

On these words of the Lord, as he himself grants, we are going to speak in this sermon; they run thus: "I have made your name known to the men whom you gave me out of the world." If he says this only of the disciples with whom he dined, and to whom he spoke so much before he began to pray, it does not belong to that glorifying (clarificatio), or, as others have translated it, glorification (glorificatio), of which he spoke above, by which the Son glorifies the Father. For how great or what kind of glory is it to have become known to twelve, or rather eleven, mortals? But if by saying, "I have made your name known to the men whom you gave me out of the world," he wished all to be understood, including those who would believe in him, belonging to his great church that was to be from all nations, of which it is sung in the Psalm, "In the great assembly I will confess you," then this is plainly that glorification by which the Son glorifies the Father, when he makes his name known to all nations and to so many generations of men. And this saying, "I have made your name known to the men whom you gave me out of the world," is like what he said a little before, "I have glorified you on earth"; in both places putting the past for the future, as one who knew that it had been predestined to happen, and therefore saying that he had done what he would without any doubt do.

But what follows shows it to be more credible that he said, "I have made your name known to the men whom you gave me out of the world," of those who were already his disciples, not of all who would believe in him. For when he had said this, he added: "They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that all that you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave me I have given them, and they have received them and have truly known that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me." Although all these things too could have been said of all future believers, as already accomplished in hope while they were still to come, yet what he says a little later presses us more to understand that he says these things only of the disciples he then had: "While I was with them, I kept them in your name; those whom you gave me I have guarded, and none of them perished except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled"; meaning Judas, who betrayed him; for out of that number of twelve apostles he alone perished. Then he adds: "But now I am coming to you." From this it is clear that he spoke of his bodily presence when he said, "While I was with them, I kept them," as though that presence were already no longer with them. For in this way he wished to signify his ascension soon to come, of which he said, "But now I am coming to you"; going, certainly, to the right hand of the Father, from where he will come to judge the living and the dead, likewise in bodily presence, according to the rule of faith and sound doctrine; for in spiritual presence he was certainly going to be with them after his ascension, and with his whole church in this world until the consummation of the age. So those of whom he said, "While I was with them, I kept them," are rightly understood only as those believing in him whom he had already begun to keep by bodily presence, and whom he was going to leave by bodily absence, so as to keep them with the Father by spiritual presence. But afterward he adds his other people too, where he says: "Yet I ask not for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word." Here he shows more plainly that above, from the place where he says, "I have made your name known to the men whom you gave me," he was not speaking of all who belong to him, but only of those who were listening to him when he said these things.

So from the very beginning of his prayer, where, lifting his eyes to heaven, he said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you," up to what he says a little after, "And now glorify me, Father, with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was," he wished all his own to be understood, by making the Father known to whom he glorifies him. For when he had said, "that your Son may glorify you," he at once showed how this would be done, saying, "As you have given him power over all flesh, that to all that you have given him he may give eternal life; and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." For the Father cannot be glorified by men's knowledge unless he too is known through whom he is glorified, that is, through whom he becomes known to the peoples. This is the glorification of the Father, which was brought about not with regard to those apostles only, but is brought about with regard to all men of whom Christ is the head, as of his members. For "As you have given him power over all flesh, that to all that you have given him he may give eternal life" cannot be understood of the apostles only, but certainly of all to whom, as they believe in him, eternal life is given.

Now then let us see what he says of those disciples of his by whom he was then being heard. "I have made your name known," he says, "to the men whom you gave me." Did they not, then, know God's name, since they were Jews? And where is what is read, "God is known in Judea; his name is great in Israel"? So: I have made your name known to these men whom you gave me out of the world, who hear me saying these things; not that name of yours by which you are called God, but that by which you are called my Father; a name which could not be made known without the manifestation of the Son himself. For as to his being called God of the whole creation, this name could not be altogether unknown even to all the nations before they believed in Christ. For such is the power of true divinity that it cannot be wholly and utterly hidden from a rational creature already using its reason. For, except for a few in whom nature has been too greatly depraved, the whole human race confesses God to be the author of this world. In this, then, that he made this world visible in heaven and earth, God was known to all nations even before they were imbued with faith in Christ. But in this, that he is not to be worshiped, to his injury, together with false gods, God was known in Judea. But in this, that he is the Father of this Christ, through whom he takes away the sin of the world, this name of his, hidden before from all, he has now made known to those whom the Father himself gave him out of the world. But how did he make it known, if the hour had not yet come of which he had said above that the hour would come when, he says, "I will no longer speak to you in proverbs, but will tell you plainly about my Father"? Or will a manifest telling be thought to be in proverbs? Why then was it said, "I will tell you plainly," unless because in proverbs it is not plain? But what is not hidden in proverbs but made manifest in words is beyond doubt said plainly. How then did he make known what he had not yet said plainly? So it must be understood that the past is put for the future, just as in that saying, "All that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you"; which he had not yet done, but he spoke as if he had done it, since he knew that it had been unchangeably fixed that he would do it.

But what is "whom you gave me out of the world"? For it was said of them that they were not of the world. But regeneration gave them this, not generation. What, too, is what follows: "They were yours, and you gave them to me"? Were they ever the Father's when they were not his only-begotten Son's? And did the Father ever have anything without the Son? Far from it. Yet God the Son did at one time have something which the same Son as man did not yet have; because he had not yet been made man of his mother, when he nevertheless had all things with the Father. So when he said, "They were yours," God the Son, without whom the Father never had anything, did not thereby exclude himself; but he is accustomed to attribute all that he can do to him from whom he is, he who can do it. For from whom he has his being, from him he has his power; and he always had both together, because he never was without being able. Therefore whatever the Father could do, the Son could always do with him; since he who never was without being able was never without the Father, and the Father was never without him. And so, as the Father is eternal and almighty, so the Son is coeternal and almighty; and if almighty, then certainly all-holding. For if we wish to speak properly, we translate word for word more exactly what the Greeks call pantokratōr; and our people would not have translated it so as to say "almighty," since pantokratōr means "all-holding," unless they had felt that it means just as much. What then could the eternal All-holding ever have that the coeternal All-holding did not have at the same time? So by saying, "And you gave them to me," he shows that as man he received this power to have them; since he who was always almighty was not always man. Therefore, although he seems rather to have attributed to the Father that he received them from him, since whatever is, is from him from whom he himself is, yet he also gave them to himself; that is, Christ, God with the Father, gave men to Christ the man, which is not what he is with the Father. Finally, he who says in this place, "They were yours, and you gave them to me," had already said above to the same disciples, "I chose you out of the world." Let fleshly thinking be crushed here and perish. The Son says that men were given him by the Father out of the world, the same men to whom he says in another place, "I chose you out of the world." Those whom God the Son chose out of the world with the Father, the same Son as man received out of the world from the Father; for the Father would not have given them to the Son unless he had chosen them. And so, just as the Son did not separate the Father from this when he said, "I chose you out of the world," since the Father too chose them together with him, so he did not separate himself from it either when he said, "They were yours," because they were equally the Son's own. But now the same Son as man received those who were not his own, because the same God also received the form of a servant, which was not his own.

He continues and says, "And they have kept your word; now they know that all that you have given me is from you": that is, they have known that I am from you. For the Father gave all things at once when he begot him who would have all things. "For the words," he says, "which you gave me I have given them, and they have received them": that is, they have understood and held them. For a word is received when it is perceived by the mind. "And they have known truly," he says, "that I came forth from you, and they have believed that you sent me." Here too "truly" is to be understood; for he wished to explain what he said, "they have known truly," by adding, "and they have believed." So they have truly believed what they have truly known: for "I came forth from you" is the same as "you sent me." When, then, he had said, "they have known truly," lest anyone think that this knowledge had already come about by sight and not by faith, he added by way of explanation, "and they have believed," so that we may supply "truly" and understand that "they have known truly" was said in the sense of "they have believed truly"; not in the way he signified a little before, when he said, "Do you now believe? The hour is coming, and has now come, when you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave me alone." But they believed truly, that is, as one ought to believe: unshaken, firm, steady, strong; no longer about to return to their own and to leave Christ. So the disciples were not yet such as he describes them in words of past time, as though they already were; he was foretelling what they would be, that is, when they had received the Holy Spirit, who, as was promised, would lead them in all things. Before they received him, how did they keep his word, as he said of them as though they had done it, when the first of them denied him three times, after hearing from his mouth what would happen to the man who denied him before men? So he gave them, as he said, the words which the Father gave him; but when they received them not outwardly in their ears but inwardly in their hearts, spiritually, then they truly received them, because then they truly knew; and they truly knew because they truly believed.

But how the Father gave those words to the Son himself, with what words can a man explain? The question seems easier, certainly, if he is believed to have received those words from the Father according to what he is as Son of Man. Yet, born of the Virgin, when and how he learned them, who will tell, when even his very generation from the Virgin, who will tell? But if he is thought to have received these words from the Father according to what he is as begotten of the Father and coeternal with the Father, let no time be thought of there, as though he first existed without having them and then received them, so as to have what he did not have; since whatever God the Father gave to God the Son, he gave by begetting. For the Father gave the Son those things without which the Son could not be, just as he gave him to be. For how else would he give any words to the Word, in whom he ineffably spoke all things? But what follows must be awaited in another sermon.

When the Lord was speaking to the Father about those whom he already had as disciples, among other things he also said this: "I pray for them; I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me." By "the world" he wants us here to understand those who live according to the desire of the world and are not in that lot of grace by which they are chosen by him out of the world. So he says he prays not for the world but for those whom the Father has given him: for by the very fact that the Father has already given them to him, it has come about that they do not belong to that world for which he does not pray.

Then he adds, "because they are yours." For the Father did not lose those he gave by giving them to the Son, since the Son goes on to say, "And all mine are yours, and yours are mine." Here it is clear enough how all things that are the Father's are the only-begotten Son's: certainly by this, that he too is God, born of the Father, equal to the Father; not in the way it was said to one of two sons, namely the elder, "You are always with me, and all that is mine is yours." For that was said of all those creatures which are below the holy rational creation, which certainly are subject to the church; in which whole church are understood also those two sons, the elder and the younger, together with all the holy angels, to whom we shall be equal in the kingdom of Christ and of God. But "And all mine are yours, and yours are mine" is said in such a way that the rational creation itself is included here too, which is subject to none but God, so that all things below it may be subject to it. Since this creation, then, is God the Father's, it would not at the same time be the Son's unless he were equal to the Father; for it was of this creation that he was speaking when he said, "I do not pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, because they are yours; and all mine are yours, and yours are mine." Nor is it right that the saints, of whom he spoke these words, should belong to anyone but him by whom they were created and sanctified; and therefore all that is theirs must belong to him to whom they themselves belong. Since, then, they belong both to the Father and to the Son, they show that those to whom they equally belong are equal. But what he said when he was speaking of the Holy Spirit, "All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will receive of what is mine and announce it to you," he said of the things that belong to the very divinity of the Father, in which the Son is equal to him by having all that he has. For the Holy Spirit was not going to receive from the creation which is subject to the Father and the Son what he speaks of in "he will receive of mine," but certainly from the Father, from whom the Spirit proceeds and from whom the Son too is born.

"And I am glorified in them," he says. Now he speaks of his glorification as though it had been done, though it was still to come; above he was asking the Father that it be done. But whether this is the same glorification of which he had said, "And now glorify me, Father, with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was," must certainly be asked. For if "with you," how "in them"? Or is it when this very thing becomes known to them, and through them to all who believe them as his witnesses? We can plainly understand the Lord to have said of the apostles that he is glorified in them: for by saying it was already done, he showed that it had already been predestined, and wished what was to come to be held as certain.

"And now I am no longer in the world," he says, "and these are in the world." If you consider only the hour in which he was speaking, both were still in the world, he himself and those of whom he said this. For we cannot and ought not to take this according to progress of heart and life, as though they are said to be still in the world because they still think worldly thoughts, while he is no longer in the world because he thinks divine thoughts. For one word is placed here which does not at all allow us to understand it so: he does not say, "And I am not in the world," but, "I am no longer in the world," showing by this that he had been in the world and no longer was. Is it right, then, for us to believe that he once thought worldly thoughts and, freed from this error, no longer thinks them? Who would clothe himself in so impious a notion? It remains, then, that he said he was no longer in the world in the sense in which he too had formerly been in the world, namely, in bodily presence; showing his absence from the world, soon to come, and theirs, later, by saying that he was no longer here but they were here, though both he and they were still here. For he spoke thus as a man in keeping with men, as human usage of speech has it. Do we not say every day of someone about to leave very soon, "He is no longer here"? And this is said especially of the dying. Yet the Lord himself, as if foreseeing what might trouble readers, added, "And I am coming to you," thus explaining in a way why he said, "I am no longer in the world."

So he commends to the Father those whom he is going to leave by bodily absence, saying: "Holy Father, keep them in your name, those whom you have given me." Certainly as a man asking God for his disciples, whom he received from God. But attend to what follows: "That they may be one," he says, "as we also are." He does not say, "That they may be one with us," or, "that they and we may be one, as we are one"; but he says, "That they may be one as we also are." They, of course, are one in their nature, as we too are one in ours. Which beyond doubt he would not say truly unless he said it according to this, that he is God of the same nature as the Father, according to which he said elsewhere, "I and the Father are one"; not according to what he also is as man; for according to this he said, "The Father is greater than I." But since God and man are one and the same person, we understand the man in that he asks, but we understand God in that both he and the one he asks are one. But there is still a place in what follows where this matter must be discussed more carefully.

But here follows: "While I was with them, I kept them in your name." Now that I am coming to you, he says, keep them in your name, in which I myself kept them when I was with them. In the Father's name the Son, as man, kept his disciples, being with them in human presence; but the Father too kept in the Son's name those whom he heard when they asked in the Son's name. For the same Son had said to them: "Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it to you." Nor ought we to take this so carnally as though the Father and the Son keep us by turns, their guarding of us alternating, as though one took over when the other departed: for the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, who is the one true and blessed God, keep us together. But Scripture does not lift us up unless it comes down to us; just as the Word made flesh came down in order to lift us up, not fell so as to lie there. If we have recognized him as coming down, let us rise with him as he lifts us; and let us understand, when he speaks thus, that he distinguishes persons, not separates natures. So when the Son kept his disciples by bodily presence, the Father was not waiting to take over from the departing Son in guarding them; both kept them by spiritual power; and when the Son took his bodily presence away from them, he held with the Father the spiritual guarding. For when the Son as man received them to be kept, he did not take them away from the Father's keeping; and when the Father gave them to the Son to be kept, he did not give them without him to whom he gave them; but he gave them to the Son as man, not without the same Son as God.

Then the Son continues and says: "Those whom you gave me I have guarded, and none of them perished except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled." The betrayer of Christ is called the son of perdition, predestined to perdition, according to the Scripture which prophesies of him above all in the hundred and eighth psalm.

"But now," he says, "I am coming to you; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves." See, he says he is speaking in the world, he who had said a little before, "I am no longer in the world"; why he said that, we explained there, or rather we showed that he himself explained it. So because he had not yet gone, he was still here; and because he was soon to go, he was in a sense no longer here. But what this joy is of which he says, "that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves," has already been expressed above, where he says, "that they may be one as we also are." This joy of his, that is, conferred by him on them, he says is to be fulfilled in them; and for this reason he said he had spoken in the world. This is that peace and blessedness in the age to come, for the attaining of which we must live soberly and justly and devoutly in this age.