Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus LXXXV-CII

was calmed; there he denied Him whom he had loved, here he loved Him whom he had denied. But still, even then, that love itself had been weak and narrow, until the Holy Spirit should strengthen and enlarge it. When He had been poured into him with an abundance of more generous grace, He so kindled his once cold breast for bearing testimony about Christ, and so unlocked those lips which, trembling before, had suppressed the truth, that, when all upon whom the Holy Spirit had come were speaking in the tongues of all nations, with crowds of Jews standing round, he alone flashed forth more readily than the rest to bear testimony about Christ, and confounded His slayers concerning His resurrection. If anyone delights to gaze upon so sweetly holy a spectacle, let him read the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2-5): there let him be astonished at blessed Peter preaching, whom he had grieved over denying; there let him see that tongue, carried over from diffidence to confidence and from slavery to freedom, converting so many tongues of enemies to the confession of Christ, though, being unable to bear one of them, it had been turned to denial. Why say more? So great a splendour of grace, so great a fullness of the Holy Spirit appeared in him, such weights of most precious truth proceeded from the mouth of the preacher, that he made Jews, adversaries in a vast multitude and slayers of Christ, ready to die for Him, by whom he had feared to be killed with Him. This the Holy Spirit did, sent then, promised before. These great and wonderful benefits of His the Lord foresaw when He said, « And they have seen, and they have hated both Me and My Father: that the word may be fulfilled which is written in their Law, that they hated Me without cause. But when the Paraclete comes, Whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, Who proceeds from the Father, He will bear testimony of Me; and you will bear testimony. » For He, bearing testimony and making most valiant witnesses, took away fear from the friends of Christ, and turned the hatred of His enemies into love.

Tractate 93. On what the Lord says, These things I have spoken to you, that you may not be scandalized; up to, But these things I have spoken to you, that, when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you. Chapter 16, verses 1-4.

1. In the passages which precede this little chapter of the Gospel, the Lord, strengthening His disciples to endure the hatreds of enemies, prepared them also by His own example, that by imitating Him they might become braver: adding and promising them that the Holy Spirit would come, Who would bear testimony of Him, and adding further that they themselves would become His witnesses, the Holy Spirit of course working this in them. For thus He says: He will bear testimony of Me, and you will bear testimony. Certainly, because He will bear testimony, you also will bear testimony: He in your hearts, you in your voices; He by inspiring, you by sounding forth: so that there might be fulfilled, Their sound has gone out into all the earth (Ps. 18:5). For it would have been too little to exhort them by His example, had He not filled them with His Spirit. Finally the apostle Peter, when he had already heard His words where He had said, The servant is not greater than his lord: if they have persecuted Me,

they will persecute you also (John 15:20); and he would now see this being fulfilled in Him, in Whom he ought to have imitated the patience of his Lord, if example had been enough: he gave way and denied, by no means bearing what he saw Him bear. But when he received the gift of the Holy Spirit, he preached Him Whom he had denied; and Him Whom he had feared to confess, he did not fear to profess. For before, he had indeed been taught by example, so that he might know what it was fitting should be done; but he had not yet been upheld by strength, so that he might do what he knew: he had been instructed so that he might stand, but he had not been made firm so that he might not fall. After this was done through the Holy Spirit, he proclaimed even unto death Him Whom he had denied through fear of death. Therefore the Lord, in this following chapter, about which we must now speak to you, says, These things I have spoken to you, that you may not be scandalized. For it is sung in the Psalm, Much peace to those who love Thy law, and for them there is no scandal (Ps. 118:165). Rightly therefore, having promised the Holy Spirit, by Whose working in them they would become His witnesses, He added, These things I have spoken to you, that you may not be scandalized. For when the charity of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us (Rom. 5:5), there comes much peace to those who love the law of God, so that for them there is no scandal.

2. Then, now expressing what they were going to suffer, He says: They will put you out of the synagogues. But what harm was it to the apostles to be expelled from the Jewish synagogues, as though they were not going to separate themselves from there even if no one expelled them? But surely He wished to announce this: that the Jews were not going to receive Christ, from Whom these were not going to depart; and therefore it was to come about that those who could not be without Him would be sent out with Him by those who would not be in Him. For certainly, since there was no other people of God than that seed of Abraham, if they had acknowledged and received Christ, they would have remained like natural branches in the olive tree (Rom. 11:17); nor would the churches of Christ have become one thing and the synagogues of the Jews another: for they would have been the same, if they had been willing to be in the same. Since they were unwilling, what remained but that, remaining outside Christ, they should put outside the synagogues those who would not abandon Christ? For having received the Holy Spirit and been made His witnesses, they would certainly not be such as those of whom it is said: Many of the rulers of the Jews believed in Him; but for fear of the Jews, lest they be driven out of the synagogues, they did not dare to confess Him: for they loved the glory of men more than that of God (John 12:42–43). They believed in Him, then, but not in the way He wished them to believe Who said: How can you believe, expecting glory from one another, and not seeking the glory that is from God alone (John 5:44)? Since the disciples, then, so believed in Him that, filled with the Holy Spirit, that is, with the gift of the grace of God, they are not of the number of those who, being ignorant of the justice of God and wishing to establish their own, have not been subject to the justice of God (Rom. 10:3), nor of those of whom it was said, They loved the glory of men more than that of God: to them fits that prophecy which is found fulfilled concerning them, Lord, in the light of Thy countenance they will walk, and in Thy name they will exult all the day, and in Thy justice they will be exalted; since the glory of their strength

art Thou (Ps. 88:16–18). Rightly is it said to them, They will put you out of the synagogues: those, that is, who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge; for which reason, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish their own (Rom. 10:2–3), they expel those who are exalted not in their own righteousness but in the righteousness of God, and who, when expelled by men, do not blush, since He Himself is the glory of their strength.

3. Then, when He had said this to them, He added: But the hour is coming that everyone who kills you will think that he is offering service to God: and these things they will do to you, because they have not known the Father nor Me. That is, they have not known God nor His Son, to Whom they think they are offering service in killing you. These words the Lord appended as though by this He were consoling His own, who were to be driven out of the Jewish synagogues. For, foretelling what evils they were to suffer for bearing witness to Him, He says, They will put you out of the synagogues. He does not say, And the hour is coming that everyone who kills you will think that he is offering service to God. What then does He say? But the hour is coming: just as He would speak if He were foretelling something good after those evils. What then does He mean by, They will put you out of the synagogues: but the hour is coming? As though He had been about to say this: They indeed will separate you, but I will gather you; or, They indeed will separate you, but the hour of your gladness is coming. What then is this word doing there, where He says, But the hour is coming, as if He were promising them consolation after tribulation, when it seems He ought rather to have said, in the indicative mood, And the hour is coming? But He does not say, And it is coming, since He was foretelling that tribulation upon tribulation, not consolation after tribulation, would come upon them. Or was that separation from the synagogues perhaps going to trouble them so much that they would rather die than remain in this life without the congregations of the Jews? Far be it that they should be so troubled, who were seeking the glory of God, not of men. What then is meant by, They will put you out of the synagogues: but the hour is coming; when it seems He ought rather to have said, And the hour is coming, that everyone who kills you will think that he is offering service to God? For it is not even said, But the hour is coming that they will kill you, as though death were to befall them as a consolation for that separation; but, The hour, He says, is coming that everyone who kills you will think that he is offering service to God. It seems to me that He wished to signify nothing else at all than that they should understand and rejoice that they were going to gain so many for Christ, when they were driven from the congregations of the Jews, that it would not suffice [the Jews] to drive them out, but they would not let them live, lest by their preaching they should convert all to the name of Christ and turn them away from the observance of Judaism, as though it were divine truth. For we ought to take this as said of the Jews, of whom He had said, They will put you out of the synagogues. For the witnesses, that is, the martyrs of Christ, even if they were killed by the Gentiles, yet those [Gentiles] did not think that they were offering service to God, but to their own false gods, when they did these things. But of the Jews, everyone who killed the preachers of Christ thought that he was offering to God

service, believing that whoever were converted to Christ would desert the God of Israel. For it was by this reasoning that they were moved to kill even Christ Himself; for their words on this matter too are written down: You see that the whole world has gone after Him (John 12:19); if we let Him live, the Romans will come and take away from us both our place and our nation. And there is what Caiaphas said: It is expedient that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation should not perish (John 11:48, 50). So in this discourse too He raised up His disciples by His own example, having said to them, If they have persecuted Me, they will persecute you also (John 15:20); so that, just as in killing Him they thought they had rendered service to God, so also [in killing] them.

4. This, then, is the sense in these words: They will put you out of the synagogues; but do not dread solitude: for, separated from their congregation, you will gather so many in My name that they, fearing lest the temple which was among them and all the sacraments of the old Law be deserted, will kill you; shedding your blood in such a way that they suppose they are rendering service to God. Here is that which the Apostle said of them, They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge (Rom. 10:2): they think they render service to God by killing the servants of God. O horrible error! Is it so, that to please God you strike one who pleases God; and the living temple of God is laid low by your blow, lest the stone temple of God be deserted? O execrable blindness! But it has happened in part in Israel, that the fullness of the Gentiles might come in: in part, I say, it has happened, not wholly. For not all, but some of the branches were broken off, that the wild olive might be grafted in (Rom. 11:25, 17). For when the Holy Spirit filled the disciples of Christ, when they spoke in the tongues of all nations, when divine miracles were wrought in abundance through them, and the divine words were spread abroad, Christ, even though slain, was so loved that His disciples, driven out from the congregations of the Jews, gathered a great multitude from among the Jews themselves too, and dreaded no solitude (Acts 2-4). Inflamed by this, therefore, the rest, reprobate and blind, having a zeal for God but not according to knowledge, and believing that they were rendering service to God, killed them. But He who was slain for them was gathering them; He who, before He was slain, had instructed them about these things to come, lest unforeseen and unexpected evils, though soon to pass away, should disturb minds ignorant and unprepared, but that, being foreknown and patiently accepted, they might lead them on to everlasting goods. For that this was the reason why He foretold these things to them, He Himself also showed, adding: But these things I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you. Their hour is a dark hour, a night-time hour. But in the day the Lord commanded His mercy, and in the night He declared it (Ps. 41:9): when the night of the Jews darkened with no confusion the day of the Christians that was separated from it; and when it could kill the flesh, it could not darken the faith.

Tractate 94.

On that which Jesus says, But these things I did not say to you from the beginning

because I was with you; as far as this, But if I go away, I will send Him to you. Chapter 16, verses 5-7.

1. When the Lord Jesus had foretold to His disciples the persecutions which they were to suffer after His departure, He added, and said: But these things I did not say to you from the beginning, because I was with you: but now I go to Him Who sent Me. Here it must first be seen whether He had not foretold to them the sufferings to come before this. But the other three evangelists show clearly enough that He foretold these things before it had come to the supper (Matt. 24:9; Mark 13:9–13; and Luke 21:12–17): and when it was finished, according to John, He spoke these things, where He says, But these things I did not say to you from the beginning, because I was with you. Is this question perhaps resolved by the fact that those [evangelists] too relate that He was close to His passion when He said these things? Not, then, from the beginning, when He was with them, since He said these things when already about to depart and already about to go to the Father: and therefore according to those evangelists too what is said here is true, But these things I did not say to you from the beginning. But what are we to do about the trustworthiness of the Gospel according to Matthew, who records that these things were announced to them by the Lord not only when it was now the Passover and He was about to eat supper with the disciples, His passion being imminent, but also from the beginning, where the twelve Apostles are first expressly named and are sent to the divine works (Matt. 10:17)? What then does it mean that He says here, But these things I did not say to you from the beginning, because I was with you: unless that the things which He says here about the Holy Spirit, that He would come to them and bear witness when they would suffer those evils, these He did not say to them from the beginning, because He was with them?

2. That Comforter, then, or Advocate (for what in Greek is paracletus is interpreted as both), had become necessary as Christ was departing; and therefore He had not spoken of Him from the beginning, when He was with them, because they were comforted by His presence: but when about to depart it was fitting that He should say that He would come, through Whom it was to come about that, charity being poured out in their hearts, they would preach the word of God with confidence; and that, as He bore witness inwardly within them concerning Christ, they too would bear witness; and that they would not be scandalized when the hostile Jews put them out of the synagogues and killed them, thinking that they were offering service to God: since charity bears all things (1 Cor. 13:7), which was to be poured out in their hearts through the gift of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5). From this, then, this whole sense is drawn, that He was to make them His martyrs, that is, His witnesses, through the Holy Spirit; so that, with Him working in them, they would endure whatever harsh things persecution brought, and would not grow cold from the charity of preaching, kindled by that divine fire. These things therefore, He says, I have spoken to you, that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you (John 16:4). These things, that is, I have spoken to you, not only because you are going to suffer them; but because when that Paraclete comes, He will bear witness concerning Me, lest through fearing these things you keep silent, whence it will come about that you too bear witness. But these things I did not say to you from the beginning, because I was with you, and I comforted you with My bodily presence, displayed to your human senses

which you, as little ones, were able to grasp.

3. But now I go to Him Who sent Me: and none of you, He says, asks Me, Where art Thou going? He indicates that He will go in such a way that no one would ask, because they would see it happen openly with the sight of the body. For earlier they had asked Him where He was going to go, and He had answered them that He was going where they could not then come (John 13:36). But now He promises that He will go in such a way that none of them asks where He is going. For a cloud received Him when He ascended from them; and as He went into heaven they did not seek Him with words, but followed Him with their eyes (Acts 1:9–11).

4. But because I have said these things to you, He says, sorrow has filled your heart. He certainly saw what those words of His were doing in their hearts: for, not yet having within them the spiritual consolation which they were to have through the Holy Spirit, they feared to lose what they saw outwardly in Christ; and because they could not doubt that they would lose Him, since He was announcing true things, their human affection was saddened, because their fleshly sight was being made desolate. But He knew what was rather to their advantage, because the inner sight is itself certainly better, by which the Holy Spirit was to console them; not to bring a human body before the bodies of those who see, but to pour Himself into the breasts of those who believe. Accordingly He adds, But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go. For if I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go away, I will send Him to you: as if He were saying, It is to your advantage that this form of a servant be taken away from you: as the Word made flesh I dwell indeed among you; but I do not want you still to love Me carnally, and, content with this milk, to wish always to be infants. It is to your advantage that I go. For if I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you. If I do not withdraw the tender nourishment with which I have fed you, you will not hunger for solid food; if you cling carnally to the flesh, you will not be capable of the Spirit. For what does it mean, If I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go away, I will send Him to you? Could He not send Him while placed here? Who would say this? For neither had the One withdrawn from where the Other was, nor had He so come from the Father as not to remain in the Father. Finally, how could He, even while stationed here, not send Him Whom we know to have come upon Him when He was baptized and to have remained (John 1:32); nay rather, from Whom we know Him never to have been separable? What then does it mean, If I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you, except, You cannot receive the Spirit so long as you persist in knowing Christ according to the flesh? Hence he who had already received the Spirit says, Even if we had known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know Him (2 Cor. 5:16). For even the very flesh of Christ he knows not according to the flesh who knows spiritually the Word made flesh. This, surely, is what the good Master wished to signify by saying, For if I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you: but if I go away, I will send Him to you.

5. But when Christ departed bodily, not only the Holy Spirit but also the Father and the Son were present to them spiritually. For if Christ withdrew from them in such a way that the Holy Spirit would be in them in place of Him, not together with Him;