Augustinus, In Joannis Evangelium tractatus CIII-CXVI

be glorified? How then was the Son to glorify Him, whose everlasting glory could neither seem less on account of the human form, nor be greater in the divine? But I do not wish to squeeze that question into this sermon, or to make the sermon longer on its account.

Tractate 105.

From that which the Lord says, That Thy Son may glorify Thee; as far as this, With the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. (John 17:1–5).

1. That the Son was glorified by the Father according to the form of a servant, which the Father raised from the dead and set at His right hand, the matter itself shows, and no Christian doubts it. But since He did not only say, Father, glorify Thy Son, but added also, that Thy Son may glorify Thee, it is rightly asked how the Son glorified the Father, since the everlasting glory of the Father was neither diminished in the human form, nor could be increased in His divine perfection. But in itself the glory of the Father can be neither lessened nor increased; among men, however, it was without doubt less, when God was known only in Judaea (Ps. 75:2): not yet from the rising of the sun to its setting did children praise the name of the Lord (Ps. 112:3, 1). But since this has come about through the Gospel of Christ, that through the Son the Father should become known to the nations, assuredly the Son also glorified the Father. If, however, the Son had only died and had not risen again, without doubt He would neither have been glorified by the Father nor have glorified the Father: but now, glorified by the Father through the resurrection, He glorifies the Father by the preaching of His resurrection. For the very order of the words discloses this: Glorify, He says, Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee; as if He were saying, Raise Me up, that Thou mayest become known to the whole world through Me.

2. Then, disclosing more and more how the Son glorifies the Father: As Thou hast given Him, He says, power over all flesh, that to all that Thou hast given Him He may give eternal life. By all flesh He meant every man, signifying the whole by a part; just as, again, the whole man is signified by the higher part, where the Apostle says, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers (Rom. 13:1). For what did he mean by Every soul, but every man? And this too, that power over all flesh was given to Christ by the Father, is to be understood according to the man: for according to God all things were made through Him (John 1:3), and in Him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible (Col. 1:16). As therefore Thou hast given Him power, He says, over all flesh, so may Thy Son glorify Thee, that is, make Thee known to all flesh which Thou hast given Him. For thus hast Thou given, that to all that Thou hast given Him He may give eternal life.

3. And this, He says, is eternal life, that they may know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. The order of the words is, that they may know Thee and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent as the only true God. For by consequence the Holy Spirit also is understood, since He is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, as the substantial and consubstantial love of both. For the Father and the Son are not two gods, nor are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit three gods; but the Trinity itself is the one only true God. Nor

however is the Father the same as the Son, nor is the Son the same as the Father, nor is the Holy Spirit the same as the Father and the Son; since the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit are three; but the Trinity itself is one God. If, therefore, the Son glorifies Thee in this way, as Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, and hast so given it that to all that Thou hast given Him He should give eternal life, and, this is eternal life, that they may know Thee; then the Son glorifies Thee thus, that He makes Thee known to all whom Thou hast given Him. Further, if the knowledge of God is eternal life, the more we advance in this knowledge, the more we tend towards living. But we shall not die in eternal life: then, therefore, the knowledge of God will be perfect, when there will be no death. Then will be the highest glorifying of God; because [it is] the highest glory, which in Greek is called doxa. Hence it was said doxason, which some Latins have rendered clarifica, others glorifica. By the ancients, moreover, glory, by which men are called glorious, was defined thus: Glory is frequent report about someone with praise. But if a man is praised when report is believed, how will God be praised when He Himself will be seen? Wherefore it is written, Blessed are they who dwell in Thy house; for ages of ages they shall praise Thee (Ps. 83:5). There will be the praise of God without end, where there will be the full knowledge of God; and because [there will be] full knowledge, therefore the highest glorifying (clarificatio or glorificatio).

4. But first God is glorified here, while, being announced, He becomes known to men, and is proclaimed through the faith of believers. Wherefore He says, I have glorified Thee upon the earth; I have completed the work which Thou gavest Me to do. He does not say, commanded, but, gave: wherein manifest grace is commended. For what does human nature have that it has not received, even in the Only-begotten? Did it not receive [this], that it should do nothing evil but all things good, when it was taken up into unity of person by the Word, through Whom all things were made? But how has He completed the work which He received to do, when there still remains the trial of the passion, wherein He above all furnished His martyrs with an example to follow; whence the apostle Peter says, Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow His footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21): unless it is because He says that He has completed what He knew most certainly that He would complete? Just as long before, in prophecy, He used words of past time, when what He was saying was to come about only after very many years: They dug, He says, My hands and feet; they numbered all My bones (Ps. 21:17–18); He does not say, They will dig and will number. And in this very Gospel, All things, He says, that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you (John 15:15): to whom He says afterwards, I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now (John 16:12). For He Who by certain and unchangeable causes predestined all future things has done whatever He is going to do: for of Him too it was said through the prophet, Who has made the things that are to be (Isa. 45:11, according to the Septuagint).

5. In accordance with this, too, He says what follows: And now glorify Me, Thou Father, with Thyself, with the glory which I had before the world was, with Thee. For He had said above, Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee: in which order of words

He had shown earlier that the Son was to be glorified by the Father, so that the Son might glorify the Father. But now He has said, I have glorified Thee upon the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do: and now glorify Me; as though He Himself had first glorified the Father, by Whom He then asks to be glorified. We must therefore understand that above He used both verbs according to what was going to be, and in the order in which it was going to be, Glorify the Son, that the Son may glorify Thee; but that now He used a verb of past time about a future thing, where He says, I have glorified Thee upon the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. Then, by saying, And now glorify Thou Me, Father, with Thine own self, as though He were afterwards to be glorified by the Father, Whom He Himself had first glorified, what does He show, except that above, where He says, I have glorified Thee upon the earth, He had spoken as though He had done what He was going to do; but that here He asked that the Father should do that through which the Son was going to do the other thing, that is, that the Father should glorify the Son, through which glorifying of the Son the Son too was going to glorify the Father? Finally, if concerning a thing which was future we put a verb of future time as well, where He Himself put the past in place of the future tense, no obscurity of meaning will remain: as if He had said, I will glorify Thee upon the earth, I will finish the work which Thou gavest Me to do: and now glorify Thou Me, Father, with Thine own self. It is surely as plain as that where He says, Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee: and it is altogether the same meaning, except that here the manner of this same glorifying is stated, while there it is left unsaid; as though the one were being explained by the other to those whom it could perplex how the Father glorified the Son, and above all how the Son too glorified the Father. For by saying that the Father is glorified by Him upon the earth, but He Himself by the Father with that same Father, He has indeed shown the manner of each glorifying. For He Himself glorified the Father upon the earth by preaching Him to the nations; but the Father glorified Him with Himself by setting Him at His right hand. But the reason why afterwards, concerning the glorifying of the Father, where He says, I have glorified Thee, He preferred to put a verb of past time, was to show that in predestination it was already done, and that what was most certainly to come must be held as already done; that is, that, glorified by the Father with the Father, the Son too should glorify the Father upon the earth.

6. But He disclosed this predestination more plainly in His own glorifying, by which the Father glorified Him, in that He added, With the glory which I had, before the world was, with Thee. The order of the words is, which I had with Thee, before the world was. To this end avails what He says, And now glorify Me; that is, as then, so also now; as then by predestination, so also now by accomplishment: do in the world what had already been with Thee before the world; do in its own time what Thou didst appoint before all times. Some have thought that this is to be understood as though the human nature which was taken up by the Word were to be changed into the Word, and the man were to be changed into God; nay rather, if we consider more carefully what they have supposed, the man would perish in God. For no one, on account of this change of the man, is going to say either that the Word of God is doubled

or that it is increased, so that either there are two where there was one, or there is more where there was less. Further, if human nature has been changed and converted into the Word, and the Word of God will be as much as it was and what it was, where is the man, if he does not perish?

7. But nothing drives us to this opinion, which I see does not agree with the truth at all, if, when the Son says, And now glorify Thou Me, Father, with Thyself, with the glory which I had, before the world was, with Thee, we understand the predestination of the glory of the human nature which is in Him, which was to become immortal from mortal with the Father; and that this had already been done by predestining before the world was, which was also to be done in the world in its own time. For if the Apostle said of us, As He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), why is it thought to be far from the truth if the Father glorified our Head at that time when He chose us in Him, that we might be His members? For we were chosen in the same way as He was glorified; since before the world was, neither were we, nor was the mediator of God and men Himself, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 2:5). But He Who through Him, in so far as He is His Word, has made even the things that are to be, and calls the things which are not as though they were (Rom. 4:17), assuredly, according to that by which He is the mediator of God and men, a man, God the Father glorified Him for us before the foundation of the world, if He then chose us also in Him. For what does the Apostle say? "But we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to [His] purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be made conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers: and those whom He predestined, them He also called" (Rom. 8:28–30).

8. Unless perhaps we shall be afraid to call Him predestined, because the Apostle seems to have said this only of us, that we may be made conformed to His image. As if anyone who faithfully considers the rule of faith is going to deny that the Son of God was predestined, when he cannot deny that He is man. For it is rightly said that He was not predestined according to that by which He is the Word of God, God with God. For why should He be predestined, when He already was what He was, everlasting, without beginning, without end? But that had to be predestined which did not yet exist, so that it might thus come to be in its own time, just as it had been predestined before all times that it should come to be. Whoever therefore denies that the Son of God was predestined denies that this same [Son] is the son of man. But on account of the contentious, let us hear the Apostle on this point too at the opening of his Letters. For both in the first of his Epistles, which is to the Romans, and at the beginning of that Epistle itself, where it is read: Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called an Apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which He had promised beforehand through His Prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning His Son, Who was made for Him from the seed of David according to the flesh, Who was predestined Son of God in power according to the Spirit of sanctification from the resurrection of the dead (Rom. 1:1–4). According to this predestination, therefore, He was also glorified before the world was, so that His glory might be from the resurrection of the