Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus XXVII-XXXIV

me to eat: but on the other side, that is, on the right, there will appear the fruitfulness of fruits and the dignity of leaves; the greenness will be eternity. To those, therefore, as to dry trees it will be said, Go into the eternal fire (Matt. 25:42, 41). For behold, he says, the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit will be cut down and will be thrown into the fire (Matt. 3:10). Let them say of you, then, if you are making progress in Christ, let men say, He seduces the crowds. It is said of Him Himself, it is said of the whole body of Christ. Consider the body of Christ still in the world, consider the body of Christ still on the threshing-floor; see how it is blasphemed by the chaff. They are threshed together, indeed; but the chaff is crushed, the grain is cleansed. What was said of the Lord, therefore, serves for the consolation of whatever Christian this has been said of.

12. No one, however, spoke openly of Him, for fear of the Jews. But who were they who did not speak of Him for fear of the Jews? Surely those who were saying, He is good: not those who were saying, He seduces the crowds. Those who were saying, He seduces the crowds, their sound was heard like that of dry leaves. He seduces the crowds, they sounded out more loudly; He is good, they whispered more under their breath. Now, however, brethren, although that glory of Christ which is to make us eternal has not yet come, yet now His Church so grows, He has so deigned to spread it through all things, that now it is whispered, He seduces the crowds, and it resounds more loudly, He is good.

Tractate 29. On that passage of the Gospel, Now when the feast was half over, Jesus went up into the temple; as far as this, He Who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. Chapter 7, verses 14-18.

1. What follows in the Gospel and has been read today, let us too examine in order; and what the Lord shall have granted, let us speak from it. Yesterday the reading went as far as this: that although they had not seen the Lord Jesus in the temple during the feast day, they were nevertheless speaking of Him: And some were saying, He is good; but others, No, but He seduces the crowds (John 7:12). For this was said for the consolation of those who afterwards, preaching the word of God, were to be as seducers and yet true (2 Cor. 6:8). For if to seduce is to deceive, then neither is Christ a seducer, nor His apostles, nor ought any Christian to be a seducer: but if to seduce is to lead someone away from one thing to another by persuading, we must ask from where and to where: if from evil to good, he is a good seducer; if from good to evil, he is a bad seducer. In this sense, then, in which men are seduced from evil to good, would that we all might both be called and be seducers!

2. The Lord, then, went up afterwards to the feast day, when the feast was half over, and was teaching. And the Jews marvelled, saying: How does this man know letters, when He has not learned? He Who was hiding was teaching; and He spoke openly, and was not seized. For that He hid was for the sake of example, this for the sake of power. But when He was teaching, the Jews marvelled. All indeed, as far as I judge, marvelled; but not all were converted. And whence the wonder? Because many knew where He was born, how

He had been brought up; they had never seen Him learning letters, but they heard Him disputing about the Law, bringing forward testimonies of the Law, which no one could bring forward unless he had read, and no one could read unless he had learnt letters: and therefore they marvelled. But their marvelling became for the Master an occasion of instilling the truth more deeply. For out of their marvelling and their words the Lord said something profound, and worthy to be examined and discussed more diligently. For this reason I make your Charity attentive, not only to listening for yourselves, but also to praying for us.

3. What then did the Lord answer them as they marvelled how He knew letters which He had not learnt? My teaching, He says, is not Mine, but His Who sent Me. This is the first depth: for He seems in a few words to have spoken as if contrary things. For He does not say, This teaching is not Mine; but, My teaching is not Mine. If not Thine, how Thine? If Thine, how not Thine? For Thou sayest both: both, My teaching; and, not Mine. For if He had said, This teaching is not Mine, there would be no question. But now, brethren, first attend to the question, and so in order await the solution. For he who does not see the question which is put forward, how does he understand what is expounded? This then is what is in question, that He says, Mine, not Mine: this seems to be contradictory, how Mine, how not Mine. If then we look carefully at what the holy Evangelist himself says at the beginning, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1); on that hangs the solution of this question. What then is the teaching of the Father, except the Word of the Father? Christ Himself, therefore, is the teaching of the Father, if He is the Word of the Father. But because a word cannot be no one's, but must be someone's: He both called His teaching His own, namely Himself; and not His own, because He is the Word of the Father. For what is so much yours as you yourself? And what is so much not yours as you yourself, if what you are is someone else's?

4. The Word, then, is both God, and is the Word of a stable teaching, not one sounding through syllables and fleeting, but one abiding with the Father, to which, abiding, let us turn, admonished by passing sounds. For what passes does not admonish us in such a way as to call us to passing things. We are admonished to love God. All this that I have said was syllables; they struck the air they beat upon, so as to reach the sense of your ears, and in sounding they passed away: yet that to which I admonished you ought not to pass away; for He Whom I admonished you to love does not pass away; and when, admonished by passing syllables, you have turned to Him, neither will you pass away, but you will abide with Him Who abides. This then is what is great in teaching, lofty and eternal, that which abides; to which all things that pass away in time call us, when they signify well and are not uttered falsely. For all the signs which we utter by sounds signify something which is not a sound. For God is not two short syllables, and we do not worship two short syllables, and two short syllables

we adore, and we desire to arrive at two short syllables, which almost cease to sound before they have begun; nor is there room in them for the second unless the first has passed away. Something great therefore remains which is called God, although the sound does not remain when "God" is said. So attend to the doctrine of Christ, and you will arrive at the Word of God; but when you have arrived at the Word of God, attend: The Word was God; and you will see that "my doctrine" was truly said. Attend also to Whose the Word is; and you will see that "is not mine" was rightly said.

5. Briefly, then, I say to your Charity: the Lord Jesus Christ seems to me to have said this, My doctrine is not mine, as if He were saying, I am not from Myself. For although we say and believe that the Son is equal to the Father, and that there is no distance of nature and substance between Them, and that no interval of time came between the Begetter and the Begotten, nevertheless, with this kept and safeguarded, we say these things: that the One is the Father, the Other the Son. Yet He is not the Father if He does not have a Son; and the Son is not the Son if He does not have a Father; but nevertheless the Son is God from the Father, whereas the Father is God, but not from the Son. Father of the Son, not God from the Son; but the Other is Son of the Father, and God from the Father. For the Lord Christ is called Light from Light. The Light, therefore, which is not from light, and the equal Light which is from Light, are together one Light, not two lights.

6. If we have understood, thanks be to God; but if anyone has understood too little, a man has done as far as he could; for the rest, let him see whence he may hope. Outwardly, as labourers, we can plant and water, but it is God's to give the increase (1 Cor. 3:6). My doctrine, He says, is not mine, but His Who sent me. Let him who says, I have not yet understood, hear counsel. For since a great and profound thing had been said, the Lord Christ Himself certainly saw that not all would understand something so profound, and in what follows He gave counsel. Do you wish to understand? Believe. For God said through the prophet: Unless you believe, you will not understand (Isa. 7:9, according to the LXX). To this pertains what the Lord also added here, following on: If anyone wills to do His will, he will know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God, or whether I speak from Myself. What is this, If anyone wills to do His will? But I had said, If anyone believes; and I had given this counsel: If you have not understood, I said, believe. For understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore do not seek to understand in order that you may believe, but believe in order that you may understand; since unless you believe, you will not understand. Since, then, I have given as counsel towards the possibility of understanding the obedience of believing, and have said that the Lord Jesus Christ added this very thing in the following sentence, we find that He said, If anyone wills to do His will, he will know concerning the doctrine. What is "he will know"? That is, he will understand. But what is "If anyone wills to do His will"? That is, to believe. But that "he will know" means "he will understand", all understand; but since what He says, If anyone wills to do His will, pertains to believing, in order that it may be more carefully understood, we need our Lord Himself as expositor, that He may show us whether doing the will of His Father really pertains to believing. Who does not know

this is to do the will of God, to work His work, that is, what pleases Him? But the Lord Himself says openly in another place: This is the work of God, that you believe in Him Whom He has sent (John 6:29). That you believe in Him; not, that you believe Him. But if you believe in Him, you believe Him; yet it does not follow that whoever believes Him believes in Him. For the demons too believed Him, and did not believe in Him. Again, we can also say of His apostles, We believe Paul, but not, We believe in Paul; We believe Peter, but not, We believe in Peter. For to him who believes in Him Who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness (Rom. 4:5). What then is it to believe in Him? By believing to love, by believing to cherish, by believing to go into Him and to be incorporated into His members. This, then, is the faith which God demands of us; and He does not find what He may demand unless He has given what He may find. What faith, if not that which the Apostle defined most fully in another place, saying: Neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which works through love (Gal. 5:6)? Not faith of any kind whatever, but faith which works through love: let this be in you, and you will understand concerning the teaching. For what will you understand? That this teaching is not mine, but His Who sent me; that is, you will understand that Christ the Son of God, Who is the teaching of the Father, is not from Himself, but is the Son of the Father.

7. This saying dissolves the Sabellian heresy. For the Sabellians dared to say that the Son is the very same who is also the Father: that there are two names, but one thing. If there were two names and one thing, it would not be said, My teaching is not mine. Surely, if Thy teaching is not Thine, O Lord, whose is it, unless there is another whose it is? What Thou hast said the Sabellians do not understand: for they have not seen the Trinity, but have followed the error of their own heart. Let us, worshippers of the Trinity and of the unity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and of the one God, understand concerning the teaching of Christ that it is not His. And therefore He said that He does not speak from Himself, because Christ is the Son of the Father, and the Father is the Father of Christ, and the Son is God from God the Father; but the Father is God, not God from God the Son.

8. He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory. This will be the one who is called the Antichrist, exalting himself, as the Apostle says, above all that is called God, and that is worshipped (2 Thess. 2:4). For the Lord, announcing that he would seek his own glory, not the glory of the Father, says to the Jews: I have come in the name of My Father, and you have not received Me; another will come in his own name, him you will receive (John 5:43). He signified that they would receive the Antichrist, who is going to seek the glory of his own name, puffed up, not solid; and therefore not stable, but certainly ruinous. But our Lord Jesus Christ has given us a great example of humility: surely He is equal to the Father, surely in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; surely He Himself said, and said most truly, So long a time I am with you, and you have not known Me? Philip, he who has seen Me has seen the Father also (John 14:9); surely He Himself said, and said most truly, I and the Father are one (John 10:30). If then He is one with the Father, equal to the Father, God from