Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus XXXVI-XLV

Tractate 36.

From that which is written, You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one; as far as this, I am He Who bears testimony of Myself, and the Father Who sent Me bears testimony of Me. (John 8:15–18).

1. In the four Gospels, or rather in the four books of the one Gospel, the holy apostle John, not undeservedly compared to an eagle according to the spiritual understanding, raised his preaching higher and much more sublimely than the other three; and in raising it he wished our hearts also to be raised. For the other three evangelists walked on earth, as it were, with the Lord as man, and said little about His divinity: but this one, as though it irked him to walk on earth, as he thundered at the very opening of his discourse, raised himself up, not only above the earth and above the whole compass of air and sky, but above the whole host of the Angels too, and the whole ordering of the invisible powers, and reached Him through Whom all things were made, saying, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God: this was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was made nothing (John 1:1–3). He also preached the rest in keeping with this so great sublimity of the beginning, and spoke of the Lord's divinity as no other,

spoke. He was belching forth what he had drunk. For not without cause is it related of him in this very Gospel that at the banquet too he reclined upon the Lord's breast (John 13:23). From that breast, then, he drank in secret: but what he drank in secret he belched forth in the open, so that there might reach all nations not only the incarnation of the Son of God, and the passion, and the resurrection, but also what He was before the incarnation: the Only One to the Father, the Word of the Father, coeternal with Him Who begets, equal to Him by Whom He was sent; but in that very sending made less, whereby the Father would be greater.

2. Whatever, then, you have heard set down in lowly terms concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, think of it as the dispensation of the flesh He took up: what He was made for our sake, not what He was in order to make us. But whatever you hear set down in the Gospel concerning Him, or read there, that is sublime and exalted above all creatures and divine, and equal and coeternal with the Father, know that you are reading what pertains to the form of God, not what pertains to the form of a servant. For if you hold to this rule, you who are able to grasp it (and not all of you are able to grasp it, but all of you ought to believe it), if, then, you hold to this rule, you will fight in safety against the slanders of heretical darkness, as men walking in the light. For there have not been lacking those who, in reading, followed only the gospel testimonies that are set down concerning the humility of Christ, and who were deaf to those testimonies that have spoken of His divinity: deaf for this reason, that they might be wickedly wordy. Likewise certain others, attending only to those things that have been said concerning the Lord's sublimity, even if they read of His mercy, whereby He was made man for our sake, did not believe it, and thought these things introduced by men, and false; contending that our Lord Christ was God only, and not man also. Some this way, some that; both in error. But the Catholic faith, holding from both sides the truth that it holds, and preaching what it believes, has both understood Christ to be God and believed Him to be man: for both are written, and both are true. If you say that Christ is God only, you deny the medicine by which you have been healed; if you say that Christ is man only, you deny the power by which you were created. Hold both, therefore, faithful soul and Catholic heart; hold both, believe both, confess both faithfully. Christ is both God and Christ is man. What kind of God is Christ? Equal to the Father, one with the Father. What kind of man is Christ? Born of a virgin, drawing mortality from man, not drawing iniquity.

3. These Jews, then, saw a man, and neither understood nor believed God; and among other things you have already heard how they said to Him, You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true (John 8:13). You have heard also what He answered, when it was read yesterday and discussed according to our strength. Today these words of His have been read: You judge according to the flesh. Therefore, He says, you say to Me, You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true, because you judge according to the flesh; because you do not understand God, and you see a man, and by persecuting the man you offend the hidden God. Therefore you judge according to the flesh. Therefore I seem arrogant to you, because

I bear testimony concerning Myself. For every man, when he wishes to bear praiseworthy testimony concerning himself, seems arrogant and proud. Therefore it is written, Let not your own mouth praise you, but let the mouth of your neighbour praise you (Prov. 27:2). But this was said to man. For we are weak, and we speak among the weak. We can speak the truth and we can lie: although we ought to speak the truth, we can nevertheless also lie when we wish. The Light cannot lie: far be it that in the splendour of the divine light the darkness of falsehood should be found. He spoke as the Light, He spoke as the Truth; but the Light was shining in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it: therefore they judged according to the flesh. You, He says, judge according to the flesh.

4. I judge no one. Does the Lord Jesus Christ, then, judge no one? Is He not the one Whom we confess to have risen on the third day, to have ascended into heaven, to be seated there at the right hand of the Father, and to be coming from there to judge the living and the dead? Is not this our very faith, of which the Apostle says, With the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Rom. 10:10)? So when we confess these things, do we speak against the Lord? We say that He is coming as judge of the living and the dead; but He Himself says, I judge no one. This question can be resolved in two ways: either we understand this, I judge no one, as meaning "now", just as He says in another place, I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world (John 12:47), not denying His judgement, but deferring it. Or else, because He had said, You judge according to the flesh, He therefore added, I judge no one, so that you are to understand "according to the flesh". Let no scruple of doubt, then, remain in our heart against the faith which we hold and proclaim concerning Christ the judge. Christ came, but first to save, afterwards to judge: judging unto punishment those who were unwilling to be saved, leading on to life those who by believing did not reject salvation. So the first dispensation of our Lord Jesus Christ is medicinal, not judicial: for if He had come first to judge, He would have found no one to whom He might render the rewards of righteousness. Because, therefore, He saw that all were sinners, and that absolutely no one was free from the death of sin, His mercy had first to be bestowed, and judgement put forth afterwards: for the Psalm had sung of Him, Mercy and judgement will I sing to Thee, O Lord (Ps. 100:1). For it does not say "judgement and mercy"; for if judgement came first, there would be no mercy: but first mercy, afterwards judgement. What is the mercy that comes first? The Creator of man deigned to be man: He was made what He had made, so that what He had made might not perish. What can be added to this mercy? And yet He added to it. It was too little for Him to become man; but He was also rejected by men: it was too little to be rejected; He was also dishonoured: it was too little to be dishonoured; He was also killed: but even this is too little; by the death of the cross. For when the Apostle too was commending His obedience, carried even unto death, it was too little for him to say, Made

obedient unto death: for He did not say a death of any kind whatever, but added, even the death of the cross (Phil. 2:8). Among all the kinds of deaths there was nothing worse than that death. Indeed, where the sharpest pains torment, it is called excruciation, named from the cross. For those crucified, hanging on the wood, fastened to the wood with nails through feet and hands, were killed by a drawn-out death. For to be crucified was not this, to be slain: rather one lived a long time on the cross; not because a longer life was chosen, but because death itself was stretched out, lest the pain should end too quickly. He willed to die for us: we say too little, He deigned to be crucified, becoming obedient unto the death of the cross. He Who was to take away all death chose the extreme and worst kind of death: by the worst death He slew all death. For it was the worst to the Jews, who did not understand; for it had been chosen by the Lord. For He was to have that very cross of His as His sign, He was to set that very cross, as a trophy over the vanquished devil, on the foreheads of the faithful, so that the Apostle might say: But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. 6:14). Nothing was then more intolerable in the flesh, nothing is now more glorious on the forehead. What does He keep in store for His faithful one, Who gave such honour to His own punishment? Indeed, it is now not among the penalties of criminals among the Romans: for where the cross of the Lord has been honoured, it was thought that even a criminal would be honoured if he were crucified. He therefore Who came for this purpose judged no one: and He suffered the wicked. He bore an unjust judgement, so that He might execute a just one. But in that He bore an unjust one, it was of mercy. Indeed, having become so lowly that He came to the cross, He deferred His power, but made His mercy public. Whence did He defer His power? Because He Who was able to rise from the tomb would not come down from the cross. Whence did He make His mercy public? Because hanging on the cross He said: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34). Whether therefore on this account, because He had not come to judge the world but to save the world, He said, I judge no one: or, as I have mentioned, since He had said, You judge according to the flesh, He added, I judge no one, so that we may understand that Christ does not judge according to the flesh, as He was judged by men.

5. For so that you may now recognize Christ also as judge, hear what follows: And if I judge, My judgement is true. See, you have Him also as judge, but recognize the Saviour, lest you feel the judge. But why did He say that His judgement is true? Because I am not alone, He says, but I and the Father Who sent Me. I have told you, brethren, that this holy evangelist John flies very high: it is hard to grasp him with the mind. But it is necessary that I remind Your Charity of the mystery of him who flies higher. Both in the prophet Ezekiel and in the Apocalypse of John himself, whose Gospel this is, a fourfold living creature is mentioned, having four faces: of a man, of a calf, of a lion, of an eagle (Ezek. 1:5–10; Rev. 4:6–7). Those who before us have treated the mysteries of the holy Scriptures, most of them, in this living creature, or rather in these four living creatures, the four Evangelists

understood. The lion was set for the king, since the lion seems in a way to be king of the beasts, on account of his power and terrible strength. This figure was assigned to Matthew, because in the generations of the Lord he followed out the royal line, showing how the Lord was, through the royal stock, of the seed of David the king. But Luke, since he began from the priesthood of Zachary the priest, making mention of the father of John the Baptist, was allotted the calf; because the calf was a great victim in the sacrifice of the priests. To Mark the man Christ was deservedly assigned, because he neither said anything about the royal power nor began from the priestly, but started only from Christ the man. All these hardly departed from earthly things, that is, from those things which our Lord Jesus Christ did on earth: of His divinity they spoke very little, as though walking with Him on earth. There remains the eagle: this is John, the preacher of sublime things, and the contemplator with fixed eyes of the inward and eternal light. For it is said that the young of eagles are tested by their parents in this way: namely, they are hung from the father's talon and held up to the rays of the sun; whichever has gazed steadily is acknowledged as a son; if it has wavered in its sight, it is let fall from the talon as a bastard. Now therefore see what sublime things he must have spoken who is compared to the eagle: and yet even we, crawling on the ground, weak and of scarcely any account among men, dare to treat of these things and to expound these things; and we think that we can either grasp them when we reflect, or be grasped when we speak.

6. Why have I said these things? For perhaps after these words someone may justly say to me: Put down the book, then. What exceeds your measure, why do you take it into your hand? Why do you commit your tongue to it? To this I reply: Many heretics abound, and God has permitted them to abound for this purpose, that we may not always be nourished with milk and remain in brutish infancy. For because they did not understand how the divinity of Christ was set forth, they thought as they wished: and by not thinking rightly they brought most troublesome questions upon the catholic faithful; the hearts of the faithful began to be agitated and to waver. Then at once a necessity arose for spiritual men, who had not only read in the Gospel something concerning the divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ but had also understood it, to bring forth the arms of Christ against the arms of the devil: and to fight, with all the strength they could, in most open conflict concerning the divinity of Christ against false and deceitful teachers; lest, while they themselves kept silent, others should perish. For whoever have held that our Lord Jesus Christ is either of a different substance from what the Father is, or that Christ alone exists, so that He Himself is the Father, He Himself the Son, He Himself the Holy Spirit; whoever also have wished to hold that He was a man only, not God made man, or God in such a way as to be mutable in His divinity, or God in such a way as not to be also man: these have made shipwreck of the faith and have been cast out of the harbour of the Church, lest by their restlessness they should break the ships placed alongside them. This circumstance has compelled even us, the least, and so far as concerns ourselves altogether unworthy, but so far as concerns His mercy placed in some number of His stewards,

not to keep silent to you about what you may either understand, and rejoice with me; or, if you are not yet able to understand, by believing you may remain secure in the harbour.

7. I will speak, then; let him grasp it who can, let him believe who cannot: yet I will say what the Lord says, You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one, either now, or according to the flesh. But even if I judge, My judgement is true. Why is Thy judgement true? Because I am not alone, He says, but I and the Father Who sent Me. What then, Lord Jesus? If Thou wert alone, Thy judgement would be false; and Thou judgest truly for this reason, that Thou art not alone, but Thou and the Father Who sent Thee? What am I to answer? Let Him answer Himself: My judgement, He says, is true. Why? Because I am not alone, but I and the Father Who sent Me. If He is with Thee, how did He send Thee? Both He sent Thee, and He is with Thee? Is it so, that being sent Thou didst not depart? Is it so, that Thou both camest to us and remainedst there? How is this believed? How is it grasped? To these two I answer: "How is it grasped?" you say rightly; "How is it believed?" you do not say rightly. On the contrary, it is well believed precisely because it is not quickly grasped: for if it were quickly grasped, there would be no need for it to be believed, since it would be seen. You believe because you do not grasp; but by believing you become fit to grasp. For if you do not believe, you will never grasp, because you will remain less fit. Let faith therefore cleanse you, so that understanding may fill you. My judgement, He says, is true; because I am not alone, but I and the Father Who sent Me. Therefore, O Lord our God Jesus Christ, Thy sending is Thy incarnation. So I see, so I understand: or rather, so I believe, lest it be arrogance to say, So I understand. Truly our Lord Jesus Christ is here too; indeed, He was here according to the flesh, now He is here according to the divinity: and He was with the Father, and had not departed from the Father. What, then, is said, that He was sent and came to us, sets forth His incarnation, since the Father was not incarnate.

8. For certain heretics were called Sabellians, who are also called Patripassians, who say that the Father Himself suffered. Do not you, O catholic: for if you are a patripassian, you will not be sound. Understand, therefore, that the sending of the Son is the name given to the incarnation of the Son: but do not believe that the Father was incarnate, yet do not believe that the Father departed from the incarnate Son. The One bore flesh, the Other was with the Son. If the Father is in heaven, the Son on earth, how was the Father with the Son? Because both the Father and the Son were everywhere: for God is not in heaven in such a way as not to be on earth. Hear him who wished to flee the judgement of God and found no way: Where shall I go, he says, from Thy spirit, and from Thy face where shall I flee? If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there. The question was about the earth; hear what follows: If I descend into hell, Thou art present (Ps. 138:7–8). If, then, He is said to be present even in hell, what of things remains where He is not? For the voice of God is in the prophet: I fill heaven and earth (Jer. 23:24). He is everywhere, therefore, Who is enclosed by no place. Do not turn away from Him, and He is with you. If you wish to reach Him, do not be slow to love: for you run not with feet but with affections. Remaining in one place you come, if you believe and love. Therefore He is everywhere: if He is everywhere, how is He not with the Son? Is it so that He is not with the Son, Who, if you believe, even

is with you?

9. Whence, then, is His judgement true, except because He is the true Son? For He said this: And if I judge, My judgement is true; because I am not alone, but I and the Father Who sent Me. As though He were saying: My judgement is true, because I am the Son of God. Whence do You prove that You are the Son of God? Because I am not alone, but I and the Father Who sent Me. Blush, Sabellian: you hear the Son, you hear the Father. The Father is the Father; the Son is the Son. He did not say, I am the Father, and I myself am the Son; but, I am not alone, He says. Why are You not alone? Because the Father is with Me. I am, and the Father Who sent Me: you hear, I am, and He Who sent Me. Do not lose the person, distinguish the persons. Distinguish by understanding, do not separate by faithlessness; lest again, as if fleeing Charybdis, you run into Scylla. For the whirlpool of the impiety of the Sabellians was devouring you, so that you would say that the Father is the very same who is the Son: now you have learned, I am not alone, but I and the Father Who sent Me. You acknowledge that the Father is the Father, and the Son is the Son. You acknowledge it well: but do not say, The Father is greater, the Son is lesser; do not say, The Father is gold, the Son is silver. There is one substance, one divinity, one coeternity, perfect equality, no unlikeness. For if you believe only that Christ is another, not He Who is the Father, yet you think Him in some respect distant according to nature, you have indeed escaped from Charybdis, but on the rocks of Scylla you have been shipwrecked. Sail in the middle, avoid each perilous side. The Father is the Father; the Son is the Son. Now you say, The Father is the Father; the Son is the Son: well have you escaped the peril of the engulfing whirlpool; why do you wish to go to the other side, so as to say, The Father is one thing, the Son another thing? He is another [person], you say rightly; another thing, not rightly. For the Son is another, because He is not the very one Who is the Father; and the Father is another, because He is not the very one Who is the Son: yet not another thing, but the Father and the Son are this very same. What is, this very same? It is one God. You have heard, Because I am not alone, but I and the Father Who sent Me; hear how you are to believe the Father and the Son, hear the Son Himself: I and the Father are one (John 10:30). He did not say, I am the Father; or, I and the Father are one [person]; but when He says, I and the Father are one; hear both, both one and are, and you will be freed both from Charybdis and from Scylla. In these two words, that He said one frees you from Arius; that He said are frees you from Sabellius. If one, then not diverse; if are, then both Father and Son. For He would not say are of one; but neither would He say one of what is diverse. Therefore, He says, My judgement is true, that you may hear it briefly, because I am the Son of God. But I so persuade you, He says, that I am the Son of God, that you may understand that the Father is with Me: I am not the Son in such a way that I have deserted Him; I am not here in such a way that I am not with Him; He is not there in such a way that He is not with Me: I took the form of a servant (Phil. 2:7), but I did not lose the form of God; Alone, then, He says,

I am not, but I and the Father who sent Me.

10. He had spoken of judgement; He wishes to speak of testimony. In your Law, He says, it is written that the testimony of two men is true. I am He who bears testimony of Myself, and the Father who sent Me bears testimony of Me. He expounded the Law to them as well, if they were not ungrateful. For it is a great question, my brothers, and the matter seems to me very much to be set in a mystery, where God said, In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word stand (Deut. 19:15; Matt. 18:16). Is truth sought through two witnesses? Plainly so; such is the custom of the human race: but yet it can happen that even two lie. The chaste Susanna was pressed hard by two false witnesses: surely, because they were two, they were not for that reason not false witnesses? Do we speak of two or of three? A whole people lied against Christ (Luke 23:1). If, then, a people consisting of a great multitude of men was found a false witness, how is it to be understood, In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word stand, unless that in this way the Trinity was set forth through a mystery, in Whom is the perpetual stability of truth? Do you wish to have a good case? Have two or three witnesses, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Indeed, when Susanna, a chaste woman and a faithful wife, was pressed hard by two false witnesses, the Trinity supported her in her conscience and in secret: that Trinity from secret raised up one witness, Daniel, and convicted the two (Dan. 13:36–62). Therefore, since in your Law it is written that the testimony of two men is true, accept our testimony, lest you experience judgement. For I, He says, judge no one, but I bear testimony of Myself: I defer judgement, I do not defer testimony.

11. Let us choose for ourselves, brothers, against the tongues of men, against the weak suspicions of the human race, God as judge, God as witness. For He who is judge does not disdain to be a witness, nor is He promoted when He becomes judge; since He who is witness will Himself be judge. Why is He Himself witness? Because He does not seek another from whom to learn who you are. Why is He Himself judge? Because He Himself has the power of putting to death and of bringing to life, of condemning and of absolving, of casting down into hell and of raising up into the heavens, of joining to the devil and of crowning with the angels. Since, then, He has this power, He is judge. But because He does not seek another witness in order to know you, He who will then judge you sees you now: there is no way for you to deceive Him when He begins to judge. For you do not bring in for yourself any false witnesses who could circumvent that judge when He begins to judge you. God says this to you: When you were showing contempt, I was seeing; and when you were not believing, I was not frustrating My sentence: I was deferring it, not taking it away. You refused to hear what I commanded; you will experience what I foretold. But if you hear what I commanded, you will not experience the evils that I foretold, but will receive the good things that I promised.

12. Let it not, indeed, trouble anyone that He says, My judgement is true; because I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent Me; whereas elsewhere He has said, The Father judges no one, but has given all judgement to the Son (John 5,