John Scotus Eriugena; Floss (ed.), Opera omnia / PL 122 (1853), cols. 283–296 — translated from the Latin (chapter 1, verses 1–14). First edited from the Alençon manuscript by F. Ravaisson, and reprinted by Saint-René Taillandier.

¹ The voice of the spiritual eagle strikes upon the hearing of the Church. The outward sense receives the fleeting sound; the inward soul pierces through to the abiding meaning. It is the voice of a bird winged on high — not of one soaring over the corporeal air, or the aether, or the whole compass of the sensible world, but of one that flies beyond every contemplation, beyond all things that are and that are not, on the wings of a most inward theology and of a most clear and lofty contemplation. By “things that are” I mean those which do not wholly flee either the human or the angelic sense — since they come after God, and do not exceed the numbers of the things created by the one cause of all; by “things that are not,” those which every created understanding leaves behind. The blessed theologian John, therefore, soars above not only the things that can be understood and spoken, but also those which surpass all understanding and signification; and beyond all things he is borne aloft by the ineffable flight of his mind into the secrets of the one principle of all, and there, purely discerning the incomprehensible — the united superessentiality of the principle itself and of the Word, that is, of the Father and of the Son, and their distinct supersubstantiality — he begins his Gospel, saying: In the beginning was the Word.

² O blessed John, not undeservedly are you called John. John is a Hebrew name, whose interpretation in Greek is echarisato, and in Latin “to whom it is given”. For to whom of the theologians has it been given, as to you, to penetrate the hidden mysteries of the highest good, and to reveal and declare to the Church the things that were revealed and declared to you? Perhaps someone will say: to the highest summit of the apostles — to Peter, who, when the Lord asked whom men held Him to be, answered: you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. But no one, I think, will rashly say that Peter spoke such things more in the character of faith and of action than of knowledge and contemplation — for the reason that Peter stands in the figure of action and faith, while John represents the type of contemplation and knowledge. The one reclined upon the Lord’s breast, which is the sacrament of contemplation; the other often faltered, as the symbol of a still-trembling action. For action under the divine commandments, before it comes to a settled habit, sometimes discerns the pure forms of the virtues, while at other times its judgement is deceived, clouded by the mists of carnal thoughts. But the keenness of inward contemplation, once it has saw the face of truth, never turns back, is never deceived, and is hidden by no darkness for ever.

³ Yet both ran to the sepulchre. The sepulchre of Christ is the divine Scripture, in which the mysteries of His divinity and humanity are enclosed as in a very solid rock. But John outran Peter. For the virtue of a contemplation thoroughly purified penetrates the inmost secrets of the divine works more keenly and swiftly than an action still being purified. Yet Peter entered the sepulchre first, and then John — and as both ran, both entered. For Peter is the symbol of faith, John signifies the understanding. And because it is written, Unless you believe, you shall not understand, faith necessarily precedes into the sepulchre of holy Scripture, and then the understanding follows, for whom the entrance is prepared by faith. Peter therefore knew Christ as God and man already made in time, and said: you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. He flew very high. But that other flew higher, who understood the same Christ as God begotten of God before all ages, saying: In the beginning was the Word. Let no one think that we prefer John to Peter. Who could do such a thing? For who of the apostles was greater than he who is, and is called, their summit? We do not prefer John to Peter, but we compare contemplation to action — the perfectly purified mind to the soul still being purified, virtue already attained to virtue still ascending towards its unchangeable habitude. For we are not now considering the apostolic dignity of the persons, but investigating the most beautiful difference of the divine mysteries.

⁴ Peter therefore — that is, the action of the virtues — beholds the Son of God encompassed in the flesh in a wonderful and ineffable manner, through the virtue of faith and action; but John — that is, the highest contemplation of the truth — marvels at the Word of God, absolute in itself and infinite, in His own beginning, that is, in His Father. Peter, led in by divine revelation, beholds the eternal and the temporal made one in Christ; John leads into the knowledge of faithful souls the eternal alone.

⁵ The spiritual, high-flying aetos — I mean the theologian John — therefore passes over every visible and invisible creature, flies across every intellect, and enters into God, deified into the Deifier. O blessed Paul, you were caught up, as you yourself affirmest, into the third heaven, but you were not caught up beyond every heaven; you were caught up into paradise, but not above every paradise. John passes beyond every created heaven and every created paradise — that is, all human and angelic nature. In the third heaven, O vessel of election and teacher of the gentiles, you did hear ineffable words which it is not lawful for man to utter; John, the inspector of the innermost truth, beyond every heaven, in the paradise of paradises — that is, in the cause of all — heard the one Word by which all things were made, and it was given him to utter that Word and to preach it to men, so far as it can be preached to men, and he confidently cries: In the beginning was the Word.

⁶ John therefore was not a man, but more than a man, since he passed above both himself and all things that are, and, borne up by the ineffable virtue of wisdom and by a most pure sharpness of mind, entered into those things which are above all things — namely the secrets of one essence in three substances and of three substances in one essence. For he could not otherwise ascend into God unless he first became God. For as the ray of our eyes cannot perceive the forms and colours of sensible things before it mingles itself with the sun’s rays and becomes one with them and in them, so the soul of the saints cannot receive the pure knowledge of spiritual things, surpassing all understanding, unless it first be made worthy to have a share in the incomprehensible truth. The holy theologian therefore, transformed into God and made partaker of the truth, proclaims that God the Word subsists in God the beginning — that is, God the Son in God the Father. In the beginning, he says, was the Word. See the opened heaven — that is, the mystery of the most high and holy Trinity and Unity revealed to the world. See the divine angel ascending over the Son of man, announcing to us that He was before all things, the Word in the beginning; and immediately descending upon the same Son of man and crying: And the Word was made flesh. He descends, proclaiming that God the Word was supernaturally made man among all things of the Virgin; he ascends, proclaiming the same Word superessentially begotten of the Father before and beyond all things.

⁷ In the beginning, he says, was the Word. And it is to be noted that in this place the blessed evangelist signifies not time but substance by this word was. For its verb — that is, to be, from which it is conjugated irregularly — contains a double meaning. Sometimes it signifies the subsistence of any thing of which it is predicated, without any temporal motion, and is therefore called the substantive verb; sometimes it declares temporal motions after the analogy of other verbs. Such then is the meaning of In the beginning was the Word — as though he had openly said: the Son subsists in the Father. For what sane and wise person would say that the Son ever subsisted temporally in the Father? For there only eternity is conceived, where only immutable truth is understood. And lest anyone should think the Word so subsists in the beginning that no difference of substances is understood to be there, he at once added: And the Word was with God — that is, the Son also subsists with the Father in unity of essence and substantial distinction. And again, lest the poisonous thought should creep into anyone that the Word is only in the Father and with God but does not itself subsist substantially and co-essentially with the Father as God — for this error invaded the perfidious Arians — he immediately added: And the Word was God. And seeing that there would not be wanting those who would say that the evangelist did not write of one and the same Word — In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God — but meant one thing by “the Word in the beginning” and another by “the Word was God”, he destroys this heretical opinion by adding in consequence:

⁸ The same was in the beginning with God — as though he said: this Word, which is God, is with God Himself, and it was not something else that was in the beginning. But this can be understood more significatively from the Greek copies, in which is written houtos, that is, “this” — and it can refer to either term, to the Word namely and to God, for these two nouns, theos and logos, are of the masculine gender in Greek. And thereby it can be so understood: and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God — as if he had said more clearly than light: this God the Word, who is with God, is Himself that of whom I said, In the beginning was the Word.

⁹ All things were made by Him. By Him, God the Word — or by Him, the Word God — all things were made. And what is “all things were made by Him” if not this: that by His being begotten before all things of the Father, all things were made with Him and through Him? For His generation from the Father is itself the establishment of all causes, and the working and effect of all things which proceed from causes into genera and species. For all things were made through the generation of God from God the beginning. Hear the divine and ineffable paradox, the inaccessible secret, the invisible, deep, incomprehensible mystery: through that which was not made but begotten, all things were made but not begotten. The beginning from which all things come is the Father; the beginning through which all things come is the Son. When the Father speaks His word — that is, when the Father begets His Wisdom — all things are made. The prophet says: you have made all things in wisdom; and elsewhere, introducing the person of the Father: My heart has uttered. And what has His heart uttered? He himself explains: I speak a good word — I utter a good word, I beget a good Son. The heart of the Father is His own substance, of which the Son’s own substance is begotten. The Father precedes the Word not by nature but by causality. Hear the Son Himself saying: The Father is greater than I — His substance is the cause of my substance. The Father, I say, precedes the Word causally; the Son precedes by nature all things that were made through Him. The substance of the Son is co-eternal with the Father; the substance of the things made through Him began in Him to be before the ages of the world — not in time, but with time. For time itself was made among the other things that were made — not begotten, but co-created. And what is the consequence of the Word which the mouth of the Most High has spoken? For the Father did not speak in vain, nor fruitlessly, nor without great effect — since even men speaking among themselves effect something in the ears of their hearers. Three things therefore we must believe and understand: the Father speaking, the Word uttered, the things effected through the Word. The Father speaks, the Word is begotten, all things are effected. Hear the prophet: He spoke, and they were made — that is, He fathered His Word, through which all things were made. And lest you should think that of things that are, some were made by the Word of God while others were made apart from Him or exist of themselves — so that not all things that are and that are not should be referred to one principle — he added the conclusion of his whole theology: and without Him was made nothing; that is, nothing was made outside Him, since He encompasses all things, comprehending them within Himself, and nothing is understood to be co-eternal or consubstantial or co-essential with Him, save His Father and His Spirit proceeding from the Father through Him. And this is more easily understood in Greek. For where the Latins put sine ipso [without Him], the Greeks put chōris autou, that is, “outside Him”. So also the Lord Himself says to His disciples: Without Me you can do nothing — “you who could not be made by yourselves outside Me, what can you do outside Me?” For there too the Greeks write not aneu but chōris — that is, not “without” but “outside”. And I have said “more easily” for this reason: when one hears “without Him”, he may think “without His counsel or help”, and so not attribute all things to Him; but hearing “outside”, he leaves nothing at all that was not made in Him and through Him.

¹⁰ That which was made, in Him was life. After the blessed evangelist had revealed the divine mysteries most remote from all reason and understanding — namely God the Word in God speaking, leaving in both the understanding of the Holy Spirit to the contemplators of the divine Scripture (for as he who speaks necessarily puts forth his spirit in the word he speaks, so God the Father at once and at once both begets His Son and produces His Spirit through His begotten) — and after he had established that all things were made through God the Son and that nothing subsists outside Him, he directed the course of his theology as from another beginning, saying: That which was made, in Him was life. For he had said before, all things were made by Him — and as though asked by someone concerning the things made through God the Word: how and in what manner were they in Him, those things that were made through Him? — he answered and said: That which was made, in Him was life. This sentence is pronounced in two ways. For it can be divided: That which was made — and then subjoined — in Him was life; and it can also be thus: That which was made in Him — and then added — was life. And so in the two readings we discern two meanings. For it is not the same contemplation which says: that which was made — divided by places and times, distinguished by genera, forms and numbers, compacted or separated in sensible and intelligible substances — all this was life in Him; and that which declares: that which was made in Him was nothing else than life — as if the sense were: all things that were made through Him are life in Him and are one. For they were — that is, they subsist in Him causally — before they are in themselves effectively. For the things made through Him are under Him in one manner, and are in Him in another manner than He Himself is. All things therefore that were made through the Word live unchangeably in Him, and are life; in whom all things neither were by temporal intervals or places, nor will be, but only are, above all times and places, one in Him — and universally subsist: the visible, the invisible, the corporeal, the incorporeal, the rational, the irrational — and simply heaven and earth, the abyss, and whatever is in them — in Him they live and are life and subsist eternally; and the things which seem to us to lack all vital motion live in the Word. But if you ask how and by what reason all things made through the Word subsist vitally and uniformly and causally in Him, take examples from the nature of creatures, and learn the Maker from the things made in Him and through Him. For His invisible things, as the Apostle says, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. See how the causes of all things which the mass of this sensible world contains subsist at once and uniformly in that sun which is called the greatest luminary of the world. From there proceed the forms of all bodies, from there the beauty of diverse colours, and the rest that can be predicated of sensible nature. Consider the manifold and infinite virtue of seeds: how the number of herbs, fruits and animals is contained in single seeds, how from them arises the beautiful and innumerable multiplicity of forms; see with the inner eyes how the many rules in the craftsman’s art are one, and live in the mind of him who disposes them; how the infinite number of lines subsists as one in a single point — and mark such natural examples as these; from which, borne beyond all things as on the wings of natural contemplation and helped and enlightened by divine grace, you will be able to look upon the secrets of the Word with the mind’s eye, and, so far as is given to human reasonings that seek their God, to see how all things that were made through the Word live in Him and are life. For in Him, as the divine mouth speaks, we live and move and have our being; and, as the great Dionysius the Areopagite says, the being of all things is the superessential divinity.

¹¹ And the life was the light of men. The Son of God, whom, O blessed theologian, you did first call the Word, you now name life and light. Not undeservedly did you change the appellations, to intimate to us the differing significations. you did name Him the Word of God because through Him the Father spoke all things, when He spoke and they were made; but light and life, because the same Son is the light and life of all things that were made through Him. And what does the light illumine? Nothing else than itself and its Father. The light therefore both illumines itself, declares itself to the world, and manifests itself to those who know it not. The light of divine knowledge withdrew from the world when man forsook God. The eternal light therefore declares itself to the world in two ways: through Scripture, namely, and through creature. For the divine knowledge is not renewed in us otherwise than through the letters of divine Scripture and the forms of the creature. Learn the divine utterances, and conceive their meaning in your mind, in which you will know the Word. Perceive with the bodily sense the forms and beauties of sensible things, and in them you will understand God the Word — and in all these the truth will declare to you nothing else than Him who made all things, outside whom you shall contemplate nothing, for He is all things. For in all things that are, whatever is, is He. As there is no substantial good apart from Him, so there is no essence or substance apart from Him.

¹² And the life was the light of men. Why did he add of men to “light”? As though the light were specially and properly of men — He who is the light of angels, the light of the whole created universe, the light of all visible and invisible being? Or is it perchance that the Word, quickening all things, is called the light of men specially and properly because in man He manifested Himself not only to men but even to angels and to every creature capable of sharing in the divine knowledge? For He appeared not through an angel to angels, nor through an angel to men, but through man — and not in phantasy but in that true humanity which He took wholly into the unity of His substance — to both men and angels, and bestowed the knowledge of Himself upon all who know Him. The light of men therefore is our Lord Jesus Christ, who in human nature manifested Himself to all rational and intellectual creatures and revealed the hidden mysteries of His divinity, whereby He is equal to the Father.

¹³ And the light shines in darkness. Hear the Apostle: You were sometime darkness, but now are you light in the Lord. Hear Isaiah: To them that sat in the region of the shadow of death, light is sprung up. The light shines in darkness. The whole human race, by the desert of original sin, was in darkness — not of the outer eyes, by which the forms and colours of sensible things are perceived, but of the inner eyes, by which the species and beauties of intelligible things are discerned; not in the darkness of this murky air, but in the darkness of ignorance of the truth; not in the absence of the light that declares the corporeal world, but in the absence of the light that illumines the incorporeal world. After whose rising from the Virgin, the light shines in darkness — namely in the hearts of those who know it. And since the whole human race is divided as it were into two parts — those whose hearts are illuminated by the knowledge of the truth, and those who still remain in the darkest shadows of impiety and perfidy — the evangelist added: and the darkness comprehended it not. As if he plainly said: the light shines in the darkness of faithful souls, and shines more and more, beginning from faith and tending to vision; but the hearts of the impious, through perfidy and ignorance, comprehended not the light of the Word of God shining in the flesh. For their foolish heart was darkened, as the Apostle says, and professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

¹⁴ But this is the moral sense. The natural contemplation of these words is this: human nature, even had it not sinned, could not have shone by its own powers. For it is not naturally light, but a partaker of light — capable of wisdom indeed, not wisdom itself, by participation in which it can become wise. As therefore this air does not shine of itself — and is called darkness — yet is capable of the sun’s light; so our nature, considered in itself, is a dark substance, yet capable of and partaking in the light of wisdom. And even as the aforementioned air, when it partakes of the sun’s ray, is not said to shine of itself, but the sun’s splendour is said to appear in it — so that it both loses not its natural darkness and receives the supervening light into itself — so the rational part of our nature, when it possesses the presence of the Word of God, knows the intelligible things and its God not of itself but through the divine light placed within it. Hear the Word Himself: It is not you that speak, He says, but the Spirit of your Father that speaks in you. By this one sentence He willed to teach us to understand the same in all things, and to sound ever in the ear of our heart ineffably: it is not you that shine, but the Spirit of your Father that shines in you — that is, He manifests to you that I shine in you, for I am the light of the intelligible world, that is, of the rational and intellectual nature. It is not you that understand Me, but I Myself understand Myself in you through My Spirit; for you are not the substantial light, but the participation of the self-subsistent light. The light therefore shines in the darkness, because the Word of God, the life and light of men, ceased not to shine in our nature — which, investigated and considered in itself, is found a kind of formless darkness — nor willed to forsake it though it sinned, nor ever forsook it: forming it by containing it through nature, and reforming it by deifying it through grace. And because that light is incomprehensible to every creature, the darkness comprehended it not; for God surpasses every sense and intellect, and alone has immortality — whose light is pre-eminently called darkness, since by no creature can it be comprehended what or how great it is.

¹⁵ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. See, the eagle, descending with a gentle flight from the loftiest summit of the mount of theology into the deepest valley of history, relaxes the wings of highest contemplation from the heaven of the spiritual world. For the divine Scripture is a certain intelligible world, constituted of its four parts as of four elements. Its earth, as it were in the middle and lowest place like a centre, is history; around which, in the likeness of waters, the abyss of moral understanding — which the Greeks call Ethics — is spread round. Around these — history, I mean, and ethics — as the two lower parts of the aforementioned world, the air of natural science, which the Greeks call Physics, is whirled about. Beyond and above all these is spread the ethereal and fiery ardour of the empyrean heaven — that is, the highest contemplation of the divine nature, which the Greeks call Theology — beyond which no intellect passes. The great theologian therefore, I mean John, touching the loftiest peaks of theology at the beginning of the Gospel, and penetrating the secrets of the heaven of spiritual heavens, ascending beyond all history and ethics and physics — to relate the things that were done shortly before the incarnation of the Word, bends his intelligible flight down into history as into a kind of earth, and says: There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He fittingly introduces John into his theology. Deep calls to deep at the sound of the divine mysteries. The evangelist relates the history of the forerunner; he to whom it was given to know the Word in the beginning commemorates him to whom it was given to go before the Word incarnate. There was a man, he says — he did not say simply “sent from God”, but there was a man, that he might distinguish the man who is partaker of humanity alone, who goes before, from the man united and compacted of divinity and humanity who comes after him; that he might separate the passing voice from the Word ever and unchangeably abiding; that he might intimate the morning star appearing at the rising of the kingdom of heaven, and declare the sun of righteousness coming after. He distinguishes him from Him of whom he bears witness, as the messenger from Him who sends, the burning lamp from the most clear light filling the world, dispelling all the darkness of death and transgressions of the whole human race. The forerunner of the Lord was a man, not God; but the Lord, whose forerunner he was, was at once man and God. The forerunner was a man to pass into God by grace; He whom he went before was God by nature, to take up man through humility and by the will of our salvation and redemption.

¹⁶ There was a man sent. By whom? By God the Word, whom he preceded; his sending is his forerunning; crying, he sends his voice before. The voice of one crying in the desert, the messenger prepares the advent of the Lord — whose name was John, “to whom it is given” to be made the forerunner of the King of kings, the declarer of the Word incarnate, and in the spiritual font the baptiser, the witness of the eternal light by voice and by martyrdom.

¹⁷ He came for a testimony, to bear witness of the light — of Christ, that is. Hear his testimony: See the Lamb of God, see Him who takes away the sins of the world; and again: He who comes after me is made before me — which in Greek is read more evidently emprosthen mou, that is, “before me, before my sight, was made”. As if he openly said: He who in the order of times was born in the flesh after my birth — before my sight, while I was yet in the womb of my barren mother, I saw Him by prophetic vision conceived and made man before me in the Virgin’s womb.

¹⁸ He was not the light, but was to bear witness of the light. Understand it from the preceding: he was not the light, but was sent to bear witness of the light. The forerunner of the light was not the light. Why then is he called the burning lamp and the morning star? He was a burning lamp, but he burned not with his own fire, he shone not with his own light. He was the morning star, but he received not his brightness from himself. The grace of Him whom he preceded burned and shone in him. He was not the light, but a partaker of the light; that which shone in him and after him was not his own. For, as we said above, no rational or intellectual creature is substantially light of itself, but by participation of the one and true substantial light, which everywhere shines in all things that shine intelligibly.

¹⁹ Therefore it is added: That was the true light, which lights every man that comes into the world. The true light he calls the Son of God subsisting of Himself, begotten of God the Father subsisting of Himself before all ages; the true light he calls the same Son made man of men for men. He Himself is the true light, who says of Himself: I am the light of the world; he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of eternal life. That was the true light which lights every man coming into the world. And what is “coming into the world”? And who is every man coming into the world? And from where does he come into the world? And into what world does he come? If you have understood it of those who come into this world by generation, through places and times, from the hidden seminal reasons of nature — what manner of illumination is there in this life for those who are born that they may die, who grow that they may be corrupted, who are compacted that they may be dissolved, who fall from the quiet of the silent laws of nature into the disquiet of tumbling misery? Tell me, I pray, what manner of spiritual and true light was there for those begotten into a transitory and false life? Is this world a fitting habitation for those estranged from the true light? Is it not rightly called the region of the shadow of death, and the valley of tears, and the deep of ignorance, and the earthly habitation weighing down the human soul and blinding the inner eyes from the sight of the true light? It is not therefore of those who proceed from the hidden causes of seeds into corporeal forms that we must understand “which lights every man coming into the world”, but of those who come spiritually, through the generation of grace which is given in baptism, into the invisible world — who, despising the nativity which is according to the corruptible body, choose the nativity which is according to the spirit; treading underfoot the world that is below and ascending into the world that is above; forsaking the shadows of ignorance and death, seeking the light of wisdom and life; ceasing to be sons of men, beginning to become sons of God; postponing the world of vices and destroying it in themselves; setting the world of the virtues before the eyes of the mind, and striving with all their might to ascend into it. The true light therefore illumines those who come into the world of the virtues, not those who run into the world of the vices.

²⁰ He was in the world. In this place he calls “the world” not only generally the visible creation, but also specially the substance of the rational nature which is in man. For in all these — and, to speak simply, in the created universe — the Word was the true light. The same subsists and ever was, since He never ceases to subsist in all things. For as, when a man speaks, his voice ceases to be when he ceases to speak and vanishes away — so if the heavenly Father should cease to speak His Word, the effect of the Word, that is the created universe, would not subsist. For the subsistence and permanence of the created universe is the utterance of God the Father — that is, the eternal and unchangeable generation of His Word. And it can also not unreasonably be understood of this sensible world only, this sentence which says: He was in the world, and the world was made by Him. Lest anyone, sharing the Manichaean heresy, should think the world which submits to the bodily senses was created by the devil and not by the Creator of all things visible and invisible, the theologian adds: He was in the world — that is, in this world was He who contains all things — and the world was made by Him. For the founder of the universe does not dwell in another’s works but in His own which He made.

²¹ We must note that the blessed evangelist named the world generally. Yet we ought to understand three worlds. The first is that which is filled solely with invisible and spiritual substances of the virtues; into which whoever comes possesses full participation of the true light. The second is opposed to the former from the opposite side, since it is constituted solely of invisible [i.e. formless] and corporeal natures. And although it holds the lowest rank of the universe, yet in it the Word was, and by the Word it was made, and it is the first step towards the knowledge of the truth for those who would ascend through the senses — for the forms of visible things draw the reasoning mind to the knowledge of invisible things. The third world is that which has the nature of a mean, and couples in itself the higher of spiritual things and the lower of corporeal things, and makes of two one — and is understood in man alone, in whom every creature is united. For he consists of body and soul: gathering a body from this world and a soul from the other world, he makes one ornament. And indeed the body possesses all corporeal nature, the soul all incorporeal nature; which, when they are welded into one frame, make up the whole worldly ornament of man. And therefore man is called “every creature” — for every creature is forged in him as in a workshop. Hence also the Lord Himself commanded His disciples when He sent them to preach: Preach the Gospel to every creature. This world then — that is, man — knew not its Creator, nor was willing to know its God either through the symbols of the written law or through the patterns of the visible creature, held fast by the bonds of carnal thoughts.

²² And the world knew Him not. Man knew not God the Word — neither before His humanisation, bare in divinity alone, nor after His humanisation, clothed in the incarnation alone. He knew not the invisible One; he denied the visible One. He would not seek Him who sought him; he would not hear Him who called; he would not worship Him who deified; he would not receive Him who received.

²³ He came to His own — namely into those things which were made by Him, and which therefore are rightly His own. And His own received Him not — His own are all men, whom He willed to redeem and did redeem.

²⁴ But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, to them that believe in His name. Now it is not the humanity of the rational world that is divided, but the wills: the receivers of the incarnate Word are separated from those who reject it. The faithful believe the advent of the Word and gladly receive their Lord. The impious deny and obstinately refuse — the Jews through envy, the pagans through ignorance. To those who receive He gave power to become sons of God; to those who receive not He still gives space for receiving. For from no one is taken away the possibility of believing in the Son of God and the possibility of being made a son of God — for this is established in the free will of man and the co-operation of grace. To whom did He give power to become sons of God? To those who receive Him — namely, who believe in His name. Many receive Christ. The Arians receive Him, but they believe not in His name; they believe not the only-begotten Son of God to be consubstantial with the Father — they deny He is homoousios, that is, co-essential with the Father, and affirm Him heteroousios, that is, of another essence than the Father is. And thereby it profits them not to receive Christ, since they strive to deny His truth. But to those who receive Christ as true God and true man, and most firmly believe this, the possibility is given to become sons of God.

²⁵ Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. In the ancient Greek copies it is written only: who were born not of blood but of God. Not of blood, he says — that is, not of bodily procreations — are they who attain the adoption of the sons of God by the merit of faith; but they are born of God the Father through the Holy Spirit into the co-inheritance of Christ — that is, into the sonship-by-sharer of the only-begotten Son of God. Nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man — a twofold sex is introduced, by which the number of those born in the flesh is carnally propagated; by the name “flesh” the evangelist signified the feminine disposition, and by “man” the masculine.

²⁶ And lest you should say: it seems impossible that mortals should become immortal, that the corruptible should be free of corruption, that mere men should be sons of God, that temporal beings should possess eternity — take from those things which are greater an argument by which you may lend faith to the matter you doubt: And the Word was made flesh. If therefore that which is greater has doubtless gone before, why does it seem incredible that that which is less may follow? If the Son of God was made man — which none who receives Him doubts — what wonder if the man believing in the Son of God shall become a son of God? For to this end the Word descended into flesh, that believing man — that is, flesh — might ascend through the flesh into the Word; that through the natural only-begotten Son many sons might be made by adoption. Not for His own sake was the Word made flesh, but for ours — who could not have been transformed into sons of God save through the flesh of the Word. He descended alone, He ascends with many; He makes gods of men, who of God made man. And He lived among us — that is, He possessed our nature, that He might make us partakers of His nature.

²⁷ And we saw His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father. Where did you see, O blessed theologian, the glory of the incarnate Word, the glory of the Son of God made man? When did you see it? With what eyes did you see it? With the bodily, I suppose, at the time of the transfiguration on the mount — for then you were the third witness of the divine glorification. you were present also, as I believe, in Jerusalem, and heard the voice of the Father glorifying the Son, saying: I have glorified it, and will glorify it again. you did hear the bands of children crying: Hosanna to the Son of David. What shall I say of the glory of the resurrection? you did see Him risen from the dead, when He entered to you and your fellow-disciples, the doors being shut. you did see His glory ascending to the Father, when He was taken up by angels into heaven. And beyond all these, in the loftiest contemplation of the mind, you did contemplate Him — the Word, I say — in His beginning with His Father, where you did see His glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.

²⁸ Full of grace and truth. The meaning of this sentence is twofold. For it can be taken of the humanity and of the divinity of the incarnate Word, so that the fulness of grace is referred to the humanity and the fulness of truth to the divinity. For the incarnate Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, received the fulness of grace according to His humanity — since He is the head of the Church and the firstborn of every creature, that is, of all humanity universally, which was sanctified and restored in Him and through Him. In Him, I say — since He is the greatest and principal example of the grace by which man is made God with no preceding merits, and in Him it was principally manifested; and through Him, since of His fulness we have all received the grace of deification, through the grace of faith whereby we believe in Him, and of action whereby we keep His commandments.

²⁹ The fulness of Christ’s grace can also be understood of the Holy Spirit. For the Holy Spirit, who is the distributor and operator of the gifts of grace, is accustomed to be called Grace — whose sevenfold operation filled the humanity of Christ and rested upon Him, as the prophet says: And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill Him. If therefore you would take the saying “full of grace” of Christ in Himself, understand it of the fulness of His deification and sanctification according to the humanity. Of deification, I say, whereby man and God were united in the unity of one substance; and of sanctification, whereby He was not only conceived of the Holy Spirit but also filled with the fulness of His gifts — and the lamps of graces shone in Him and from Him, as in the summit of the Church’s mystical candlestick. But if you prefer to understand the fulness of grace and truth of the incarnate Word as spoken of the New Testament, so the same evangelist seems to have meant a little after, when he says: The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. you will not incongruously declare that the fulness of the grace of the New Testament was given through Christ, and that the truth of the legal symbols was fulfilled in Him — as the Apostle says: In whom dwels all the fulness of the Godhead bodily — calling the fulness of divinity the mystical understandings of the legal shadows, which Christ, coming in the flesh, showed and taught to have lived in Himself bodily, that is truly — since He is the fountain and fulness of graces, the truth of the legal symbols, the end of the prophetic visions: to whom be glory with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.

[Here follows in the edition the Commentary on the Gospel of St John — a separate work.]