Tractates on the Gospel of John — Source paragraphs and footnotes

Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo

1. In this chapter of the Gospel, brethren, our Lord Jesus Christ has most especially commended Himself to our faith in respect of His humanity. For indeed He always keeps in view, both in His words and deeds, that He should be believed to be God and man: God who made us, man who sought us; with the Father, always God; with us, man in time. For He would not have sought man whom He had made if Himself had not become that which He had made. But remember this, and do not let it slip from your hearts, that Christ became man in such manner that He ceased not to be God. While remaining God, He who made man took manhood. While, therefore, as man He concealed Himself, He must not be thought to have lost His power, but only to have offered an example to our infirmity. For He was detained when He willed to be, and He was put to death when he willed to be. But since there were to be His members, that is, His faithful ones, who would not have that power which He, our God, had; by His being hid, by His con

Complete source paragraph · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 28, source paragraph 3 · Original source

Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo

4. We have said who the brethren were, let us hear what they said: “Pass over hence, and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see thy work which thou doest.” The Lord’s works were not hid from the disciples, but to these men they were not apparent. They might have Christ for a kinsman, but through that very relationship they disdained to believe on Him. It is told us in the Gospel; for we dare not hold this as a mere opinion, you have just now heard it. They go on advising Him: “For no man doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly: if thou do these things, show thyself to the world.” And directly after it says: “For neither did His brethren believe in Him.” Why did they not believe in Him? Because they sought human glory. For as to what His brethren appear to advise Him, they consult for His glory. Thou doest marvellous works, make thyself known; that is, appear to all, that thou mayest be praised by all. The flesh spoke to the flesh; but the flesh without God, to the flesh with God. It was the wisdom of the flesh speak

Complete source paragraph · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 28, source paragraph 7 · Original source

Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo

7. But what is necessary at the present time for those who have righteousness? That which is read in that psalm: “Until righteousness is turned into judgment, and they that have it are upright of heart.” You ask, perhaps, who are the upright in heart? We find in Scripture those to be upright in heart who bear the evils of the world, and do not accuse God. See, brethren, an uncommon thing is that which I speak of. For I know not how it is that, when any evil befalls a man, he runs to accuse God, when he ought to accuse himself. When thou gettest any good, thou praisest thyself; when thou sufferest any evil, thou accusest God. This is then the crooked heart, not the upright. When thou art cured of this distorting and

Complete source paragraph · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 28, source paragraph 11 · Original source

Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo

8. What said He further? “The world cannot hate you.” What is this, but, The world cannot hate its lovers, the false witnesses? For you call the things that are evil, good; and the things that are good, evil. “But me it hateth, because I bear witness concerning it, that its works are evil. Go ye up to this feast.” What means “to this”? Where ye seek human glory. What means “to this”? Where ye wish to prolong carnal joys, not to meditate on eternal joys. “I go not up to this feast, because my time is not yet full come.” On this feast-day you seek human glory; but my time, that is, the time of my glory, is not yet come. That will be my feast-day, not running before and passing over these days, but remaining for ever; that will be festivity, joy without end, eternity without a blot, serenity without a cloud. “When He had said these words unto them, He abode still in Galilee. But when His brethren were gone up, then went He also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.” Therefore “not to this feast-day,” because His desire was not for temporal glory, but to teach something to profit, to correct men, to admonish them of an eternal feast-day, to turn away their love from this world, and to turn it to God. But what means this, “He went up as it were in secret to the feast”? This action of the Lord also is not without meaning. It appears to me that, even from this circumstance that He went up as it were in secret, He had intended to signify something; for the things that follow will show that He thus went up on the middle of the feast, that is, when those days were half over, to teach even openly. But he said, “As it were in secret,” meaning, not to show Himself to men. It is not without meaning that Christ went up “as it were in secret” to that feast, because He Himself lay hid in that feast-day. What I have said as yet is also under cover of secrecy. Let it be manifested then, let the veil be lifted, and let that which was secret appear.

Complete source paragraph · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 28, source paragraph 13 · Original source

Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo

10. “Then the Jews sought Him on the feast-day:” before He went up. For His brethren went up before Him, and He went not up then when they supposed and wished: that this too might be fulfilled which He said, “Not to this, that is, the first or second day, to which you wish me to go. But He went up afterwards, as the Gospel tells us, “on the middle of the feast;’ that is, when as many days of that feast had passed as there remained. For they celebrated that same festival, so far we can understand, on several successive days.

Complete source paragraph · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 28, source paragraph 16 · Original source

Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo

of Christ. Think of the body of Christ still in the world, think of it still on the threshing-floor; see how it is blasphemed by the chaff. The chaff and the grain are, indeed, threshed together; but the chaff is consumed, the corn is purged. What was said of the Lord then, avails for consolation, whenever it will be said of any Christian.

Complete source paragraph · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 28, source paragraph 18 · Original source

Date uncertain | Augustine of Hippo

12. “Howbeit no man spake openly of Him for fear of the Jews.” But who were they that did not speak of Him for fear of the Jews? Undoubtedly they who said, “He is a good man:” not they who said, “He deceiveth the people.” As for them who said “He deceiveth the people,” their din was heard like the noise of dry leaves. “He deceiveth the people,” they sounded more and more loudly: “He is a good man,” they whispered more and more constrainedly. But now, brethren, notwithstanding that glory of Christ which is to make us immortal is not yet come, yet now, I say, His Church so increases, He has deigned to spread it abroad through the whole world, that it is now only whispered. “He deceiveth the people;” and more and more loudly it sounds forth, “He is a good man.”

Complete source paragraph · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 28, source paragraph 19 · Original source