Adumbrations on the Catholic Epistles (Latin, from Stählin) (complete)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by his great mercy has regenerated us.” For if “God” begot us from matter, afterward, in accordance with progress in life, “the Father of our Lord regenerated” us “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”: according to our faith he rises in us, just as, on the contrary, he dies in us when our unbelief brings it about. It was fitting, moreover, that the soul should never return a second time to a body in this life, neither the righteous soul, which has become angelic, nor the wicked one, lest it again receive occasion for sinning by taking on flesh; but in the resurrection both return to the body. For they are joined to one another each according to its own kind, fitted together by a certain congruity in the composition of the other, like a net or a building of stones. Therefore Peter says: “And you yourselves, like living stones, are built up as a spiritual house.” “Kept,” that is, “in the heavens,” signifying the place of the angelic seat; “for you,” he says, “who are guarded by the power of God through faith” and contemplation, “obtaining the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” From this it appears that the soul is not by nature incorruptible, but is made incorruptible by the grace of God through faith and righteousness and understanding. “Concerning which salvation,” he says, “the prophets inquired and searched,” and the rest that follows. By these words it is declared that the prophets spoke with wisdom, and that “the Spirit of Christ was in them” according to possession and subjection to Christ; for the Lord works through archangels and the nearest angels, who are called spirits of Christ. “Which have now,” he says, “been announced to you by those who preached the gospel to you.” The old things, he says, which were done through the prophets and are hidden from most, are now revealed to you through the evangelists. For to you, he says, they have been made manifest “by the Holy Spirit who was sent,” that is, the Paraclete, of whom the Lord said: “Unless I go away, he will not come.” “Into which,” he says, “angels long to look”: not the apostate angels, as very many suppose, but, what is true and divine, angels who desire to attain the advance of that perfection. “With precious blood,” he says, “as of a lamb unstained and spotless.” Here he touches on the ancient Levitical and priestly rites; but he signifies the soul made pure through righteousness, which is offered to God. “Foreknown indeed,” he says, “before the foundation of the world”: for he was foreknown before every creature, being what Christ was; “but manifested in the last times” through the body that was begotten. “Born again not of corruptible seed”: corruptible, then, is the soul that is poured forth together with the body, as some think. “But the word of the Lord,” he says, “abides for ever,” both prophecy and divine teaching.

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood.” That we are a “chosen race” by God's election is abundantly clear; and he said “royal” because we are called to the kingdom and we belong to Christ; and “priesthood” because of the offering made by prayers and teachings, by which souls are gained, which are offered to God. “Who, when he was reviled,” he says, “did not revile; when he suffered, he did not threaten”: the Lord, assuredly, through goodness and patience. “But he handed over,” he says, “to him who judged him unjustly”: either himself (so that there is a hyperbaton, standing thus: but he handed himself over to those who judged according to an unjust law, because he was “unprofitable” to them, being righteous), or he handed over to God those who judged unjustly, that is, those who condemned him most wickedly and pressed for his death without cause, so that by receiving punishment they may be corrected.

“For he who wishes,” he says, “to love life and see good days,” that is, who wishes to become eternal and incorruptible. By “life” he means the Lord, and by “good days” the saints. “For the eyes of the Lord,” he says, “are on the righteous, and his ears toward their prayers”: he signifies the manifold contemplation of the Holy Spirit. “But the face of the Lord is on those who do evil,” that is, either judgment or vengeance or manifestation. “But sanctify the Lord Christ,” he says, “in your hearts.” So you have also in the Lord's Prayer: “Hallowed,” he says, “be your name.” “For Christ,” he says, “died once for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might offer us to God, put to death indeed in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit.” He says these things bringing them back to their faith; that is, he was made alive in our spirits. “Coming,” he says, “he preached to those who were once unbelieving.” They did not see his form, but they heard the sound of his voice. “When the long-suffering of God waited,” he says. So good is God

that he works the effect of salvation even through correction. “Through the resurrection,” he says, “of Jesus Christ”: namely, that which has been effected in us through faith. “Angels being subjected to him”: who are the first order of advancement; “powers” also being subjected, who are of the second order; and “virtues” also being subjected, who are declared to belong to the third order.

“Who will give account,” he says, “to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” These are corrected according to preceding judgments. For this reason he adds: “For this reason the gospel was preached even to the dead,” to us, that is, who were once unbelievers; “so that they may be judged,” he says, “according to man in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.” Those, that is, who have fallen away from faith, while they are still in the flesh,

are judged according to preceding judgments, so that they may repent. Therefore he adds, saying: “that they may live according to God in the spirit.” So Paul too; for he too says something like this: “whom I have handed over,” he says, “to Satan, so that he may live in the spirit.” “As good stewards,” that is, “of the manifold grace of God.” Similarly Paul too: “In many parts,” he says, “and in many ways God spoke of old to our fathers.” “Rejoice,” he says, “sharing in the sufferings of Christ”; that is, if you are righteous, suffer for righteousness' sake, as Christ too suffered for righteousness. “Blessed,” he says, “because the Spirit of his honor and of the power of God rests upon you.” Here the possessive “his” signifies also the angelic spirit; for those are the glory of God through whom, according to faith and righteousness, he is glorified unto honorable glory, according to the advancement of the faithful who are brought in. It can also be understood thus: “the Spirit of God upon us,” that is, which comes upon the soul according to faith, like a certain grace of the mind and beauty of the soul. “Because it is the time for judgment to begin from the house of the Lord.” “But the God,” he says, “of all grace.” He said “of all grace” because he is good and is himself the giver of all good things. … Mark, the follower of Peter, while Peter was publicly preaching the gospel at Rome before certain of Caesar's knights and putting forward many testimonies of Christ, was asked by them to enable them to commit to memory what was being said, and from the things spoken by Peter he wrote the gospel that is called according to Mark; just as Luke too is recognized to have composed the Acts of the Apostles with his pen and to have translated Paul's letter to the Hebrews.

Jude, who wrote the catholic epistle, a brother of the sons of Joseph and very devout, though he knew his kinship with the Lord, yet did not say that he himself was his brother; but what did he say? “Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ,” as of the Lord, “and brother of James”; for this is true: he was his brother, through Joseph. “For certain ungodly men,” he says, “have crept in, who were long ago written down beforehand” and predestined “for the judgment of our God”: not that they might become ungodly, but being already ungodly they were written down beforehand for judgment. “For the Lord God, having once delivered the people out of the land of Egypt,” he says, “afterward … what they know naturally, in these they are corrupted.” He means that they eat and drink and indulge in sexual things, and he says that they do other things that they have in common with animals lacking reason. “Woe to them,” he says, “for they have gone in the way of Cain.” So too we are subject to Adam's sin, according to the likeness of the sin. “Clouds,” he says, “without water”: that is, those who do not possess in themselves the divine and fruitful word. For this reason, he says, such men are “carried about by winds” and violent spirits. “Autumn trees,” he says, “fruitless”: unbelievers, that is, who bear no fruit of faithfulness. “Twice,” he says, “dead”: once, namely, when they sinned by transgressing; and a second time when they will be handed over to punishments according to the predestined judgments of God; for it must be reckoned death also when anyone does not at once attain the inheritance. “Waves,” he says, “of a wild sea.” By these words he signifies the life of the Gentiles, whose ambition has an abominable end. “Wandering stars”: that is, he signifies those who wander and the apostates; of such stars are those who fell from the seats of the angels, for whom, because of their apostasy, “the gloom of darkness is reserved for ever.” “And of these prophesied,” he says, “Enoch, the seventh from Adam.” By these words he approves the prophet. “These are,” he says, “those who separate” the faithful from the unfaithful, convicted according to their own unbelief, and again distinguishing holy things from fleshly ones. “Psychic,” he says, “not having the Spirit”: the Spirit, that is, which comes upon us through faith according to the practice of righteousness. “But you, beloved,” he says, “building yourselves up on your most holy faith in the Holy Spirit.” “Some,” he says, “save, snatching them from the fire; and on others have mercy in fear”: that is, that you should teach those who fall into the fire to free themselves. “Hating,” he says, “the stained garment, which is fleshly”: the garment of the soul, that is, is stained when the spirit is polluted by fleshly lusts. “Now to him,” he says, “who is able to keep you without

stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory blameless in gladness.” “In the presence of his glory” he says, that is, before the angels; and “to be set blameless,” made angels. When Daniel says of the people, “and it came into the presence of the Lord,” he does not say this because he saw God; for it is impossible that anyone not pure in heart should see God; but he says it because all that the people did was in the sight of God and was manifest to him; that is, nothing is hidden from the Lord. And in the Gospel according to Mark, the Lord, asked by the high priest whether he was “the Christ, the Son of the Blessed God,” answered and said: “I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power.” By “Powers” he means the holy angels. And so, when he says “at the right hand of God,” he means those same ones, because of the equality and likeness of the angelic and holy powers, which are named by the one name of God. When, therefore, he says “to sit at the right hand,” that means to rest there in pre-eminent honor. But in the other Gospels the Lord, asked by the high priest whether he was the Son of God, does not answer to the contrary; but what did he say? “You say,” answering quite well. For if he had said “as you understand,” he would surely have lied, not confessing himself to be the Son of God, since they did not think so of him. But by saying “you say” he spoke truly; for what they did not understand, they said in words, and he confessed this to be true.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes.”

In agreement with the Gospel according to John, and fittingly, this epistle too contains a spiritual beginning. As to his saying “from the beginning,” the presbyter used to explain it thus: that the beginning of the generation is not separated from the beginning of the Maker. For when he says “that which was from the beginning,” he touches on the generation without beginning of the Son, who exists together with the Father. “Was,” then, is a word signifying the eternity of one who has no beginning; just as the Word itself (that is, the Son), which according to equality of substance is one with the Father, is everlasting and unmade. That the Word always was is signified by saying, “In the beginning was the Word.” And by saying “which we have seen with our eyes” he signifies the Lord's presence in the flesh. “And our hands,” he says, “have handled, concerning the Word of life”: he signifies not only his flesh, but also the powers of the same Son, like a ray of the sun passing down to these lowest places; which ray, coming in the flesh, became palpable to the disciples. It is related in the traditions that John, touching the very body, which was outward, sent his hand deep inside, and that the solidity of the flesh in no way resisted, but gave way to the disciple's hand. For this reason he also adds: “and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life”: he who came in the flesh was certainly made touchable. So also “the life, which was manifested.” For in the Gospel too he says thus: “And what was made in him was life, and the life was the light of men.” “And we announce to you,” he says, “the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.” By the name “Father” he signifies that the Son too always was, without beginning. “For God,” he says, “is light”: he does not express the divine essence, but, wishing to declare the majesty of God, he fitted to the divinity what is better and more excellent among men; so Paul too, calling it “unapproachable light.” But John himself also, in this same epistle, says “God is love,” signifying the powers of God, that he is clement and merciful; and because he is light, that is, he makes men righteous by the progress of the soul through love. God, then, is light, who is ineffable as to the account of his substance. “And in him there is no darkness at all,” he says: that is, no anger, no passion, no harboring of evil toward anyone, destroying no one, but giving salvation to all. And light signifies either the precepts of the law, or faith, or teaching; and darkness, their opposites.

Not as though there were another way; for there is one way, according to the divine precepts. For the monad is the work of God, but the dyad and whatever exists besides the monad comes about from perversity of life. “And the blood,” he says, “of his Son cleanses us”: for the Lord's teaching, which is very strong, is called his blood. “If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us”: his teaching, that is, if we lie; for the word is truth.

“And if anyone sins,” he says, “we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ.” For just as the Lord is a Paraclete for us with the Father, so too is he a Paraclete whom he deigned to send after his assumption. For these primitive and first-created powers, unmoved, existing according to substance, together with the subject angels and archangels, with whom they are called by the same name, perform diverse operations. So too Moses calls the power of the angel Michael by an angel near to himself and of the lowest grade. Similarly we find in the other prophets too; but to Moses indeed an angel near and close at hand appeared. He heard him, and Moses spoke to him openly, face to face. But to the other prophets, through the operation of angels, a certain movement took place, as of people hearing and seeing. And therefore they alone heard and they alone saw, as is shown also in the case of Samuel. For he alone heard the voice by which he was called. If the voice had been manifest and common, it would have been heard by all present; but as it was, it was heard by him alone in whom the movement produced by the angel was at work. “And not only for our sins,” he says, “is the Lord the propitiation,” that is, for the sins of the faithful, “but also for the whole world.” Therefore he saves all, but some by converting them through punishments, others who follow with willing assent and with the dignity of honor, “so that every knee may bow to him, of things in heaven, on earth and under the earth,” that is, angels, men, and souls that departed from this temporal life before his coming. “And by this we know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.”

For he who has understanding certainly also performs the works that belong to the duty of virtue; but he who performs works is not necessarily also a man of understanding.

For a man can be a knower of right actions, and yet not of intelligible mysteries. Then, knowing that some works are done from fear of punishment and some because of the promise of reward, he teaches the perfection of the man of understanding, who completes his works through love. Therefore he adds and says: “But whoever keeps his word, truly in him the love of God is perfected; by this we know that we are in him,” according to faith and according to love. “I write to you not a new commandment, but an old commandment, which you had from the beginning,” that is, through the law and the prophets, where it is said: “God is one.”

Therefore he also adds that “the old commandment is the word which you have heard.”

And again he says: “And this is the commandment, that the darkness has passed,” that is, the darkness of perversity, “and the true light now shines,” namely according to faith, according to understanding, according to the testament, according to the judgments prepared, working in men. “He who says,” he says, “that he is in the light”: by “in the light” he means in the truth; “and hates his brother,” he says: by “brother” he means not only the neighbor but also the Lord. For the unbelievers and those who do not keep his commandments hate him. For this reason he also adds: “He who loves his brother,” he says, “abides in the light, and there is no stumbling in him.” Then he signifies the progress and advancement of souls still placed in the flesh; and he calls “little children” those whose “sins have been forgiven for the name of the Lord”; for many believe in the name alone; and he calls “fathers” the perfect, those who “have understood what was from the beginning” and have perceived it intelligibly, namely the Son, of whom he said above, “that which was from the beginning.” “I write to you, young men,” he says, “because you have overcome the evil one.” “Strong young men” are those who despise pleasures; by “the evil one” he signifies the arrogance of the devil. And the “children” “know the Father,” as those who have fled from idols and been called together to the one God. “Because the world,” he says, “lies in the evil one.” Are not “the world” and “all things that are in the world” called God's creation, and these “very good”? But “the lust of the flesh and of the eyes and the ambition of the age,” which come about from perversity of life, “is not from the Father but is from the world,” and from us. “Therefore the world will pass away, and its lust; but he who does the will of God” and his commandments “abides for ever.” “They went out from us,” he says, “but they were not of us”: neither the apostate angels nor the men who fall; “but that it might be made manifest that they are not of us.” He distinguishes clearly enough the race of the elect and of the lost; and the one that abides in faith “has an anointing from the Holy One,” which comes according to faith; but he who does not abide in faith is “a liar” and “the antichrist, who says,” he says, “that Jesus is not the Christ.” For Jesus is savior and deliverer, and Christ is king. “He who denies the Son,” by not knowing him, “does not have the Father,” nor know him. But he who knows the Son knows the Father also, according to knowledge. “When” the Lord “has been manifested in” his second “coming, he will have confidence and will not be put to shame”; and that shame is a great punishment. “Everyone,” he says, “who does righteousness is born of him”: reborn, that is, according to faith.

“For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know him.” By “the world” he means those who live worldly lives in luxury. “Beloved,” he says, “now we are children of God”: not by natural affection, but because we have God as Father. For it is a greater love that, though we have no kinship with God, he nevertheless loves us and calls us his children. “And it has not yet appeared what we shall be”: that is, to what glory we shall come. “For if he is manifested,” that is, if we have been made perfect, “we shall be like him,” as resting and justified, pure in power, so that we may see his very face “as he is,” comprehensibly. “But he who does unrighteousness is of the devil,” that is, of the devil's party, following and choosing the same things as he. “From the beginning,” he says, “the devil sins”: from the beginning, that is, from which he began to sin, persevering unchangeably in sinning. “Everyone,” he says, “who is born of God does not sin, because his seed abides in him”: that is, his word, in him who has been reborn according to faith. So we understand “children of God,” as also “children of the devil”: those who choose things like the devil; so too they are said to be “of the evil one.” “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.” For in this, through unbelief, Christ dies; and so he rightly adds, saying: “And you know that no murderer” and unbeliever “has eternal life abiding in himself.” For Christ, living in the faithful mind, abides. “For he laid down his life for us,” that is, for the apostles. If, then, he laid down his life for the apostles, and he calls the apostles themselves “us,” it is as if he said: “We,” I say, the apostles, for whose sake he laid down his life, “ought to lay down our lives for the brothers”; for the salvation of their neighbors was the apostles' glory. “Because God is greater,” he says, “than our heart”: that is, the power of God is greater than the conscience that follows the soul; for this reason he adds and says that “he knows all things.” “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we shall have confidence before God.” “By this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he gave us”: that is, according to oversight and the providence of things to come.

“Perfect love,” he says, “casts out fear”; for love is the perfection of the faithful man.

“This is he,” he says, “who came through water and blood,” and again, “because there are three that bear witness: the Spirit,” which is life, “and the water,” … “and the three are one.” For in the Savior are these saving powers, and life itself exists in his Son himself. “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” He did not say absolutely “whatever we ask,” but what we ought to ask. “And the whole world lies in the evil one”: not the creation, but worldly men living according to their lusts. “And the Son of God has come and given us understanding”: namely, the understanding that comes into us according to faith, which is also called the Holy Spirit.