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Tractates on the Gospel of John — Historical footnotes

Tractate 68

Complete historical editorial footnotes. These notes retain the original edition’s wording; individual note authors are unspecified.

English translation and editorial credits: James Innes.

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1888 (historical English edition; physical printing year uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

The apparent contrariety that Augustin here deals with, partly arises from a mistaken interpretation of the second half of verse 2, as given above. His Latin version read, si quo minus, dixissem vobis quia vado,etc., and is a close verbal rendering of the original text, as found in several mss.,—εἰ δὲ μὴ, εἶπον ἂν ὑμῖν, ὅτι πορεύομαι,—although some others omit the ὅτι. But while verbally exact, grammatical accuracy and a fair exegesis will admit of a pause after ὑμῖν (vobis), as the general sense of the passage requires. ῞Οτι might thus be used in the sense of “because;” or, as it often is, as a particle introducing a direct statement.—Tr.

Editorial footnote · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 68, editorial note cite_note-1 · Original source

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1. We acknowledge, beloved brethren, that we are owing you, and ought now to repay, what was left over for consideration, how we can understand that there is no real mutual contrariety between these two statements, namely, that after saying, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you, that I go to prepare a place for you;”—where He makes it clear enough that He said so to them for the very reason that there are many mansions there already, and there is no need of preparing any;—the Lord again says: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” How is it that He goes and prepares a place, if there are many mansions already? If there were not such, He would have said, “I go to prepare.” Or if the place has still to be prepared, would He not then also properly have said, “I go to prepare”? Are these mansions in existence already, and yet needing still to be prepared? For if they were not in existence, He would have said, “I go to prepare.” And yet, because their present state of existence is such as still to stand in need of preparation, He does not go to prepare them in the same sense as they already exist; but if He go and prepare them as they shall be hereafter, He will come again and receive His own to Himself: that where He is, there they may be also. How then are there mansions in the Father’s house, and these not different ones but the same, which already exist in a sense in which they can admit of no preparation, and yet do not exist, inasmuch as they are still to be prepared? How are we to think of this, but in the same way as the prophet, who also declares of God, that He has [already] made that which is yet to be. For he says not, Who will make what is yet to be, but, “Who has made what is yet to be.” Therefore He has both made such things and is yet to make them. For they have not been

1888 (historical English edition; physical printing year uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)

Isa. xlv. 11, according to the Septuagint, whose reading, as usual, is followed by Augustin, although here a very manifest mistranslation of the Hebrew. The words are, “Thus saith Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel (ויצּרו האיתות שאלוני) and his Maker, Ask me of things to come,” etc. This is the rendering really in accordance with the usual Hebrew idiom, with the sense of the passage itself, and with the frequent use of Yotser (Maker) by Isaiah. It is that also approved by the Masoretic pointing, and followed generally by the other translations, including the Vulgate, which has: plastes ejus: ventura interrogate me, etc. The LXX., however, make ha’othiyyoth dependent on yots’ro (notwithstanding its own suffix), instead of the verb that follows, and reads, ὁ ποιήσας (αὐτὸν in some copies) τὰ ἐπερχόμενα, which Augustin renders in the text: qui fecit quæ futura sunt.—Tr.

Editorial footnote · Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate 68, editorial note cite_note-2 · Original source

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1. We acknowledge, beloved brethren, that we are owing you, and ought now to repay, what was left over for consideration, how we can understand that there is no real mutual contrariety between these two statements, namely, that after saying, “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you, that I go to prepare a place for you;”—where He makes it clear enough that He said so to them for the very reason that there are many mansions there already, and there is no need of preparing any;—the Lord again says: “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” How is it that He goes and prepares a place, if there are many mansions already? If there were not such, He would have said, “I go to prepare.” Or if the place has still to be prepared, would He not then also properly have said, “I go to prepare”? Are these mansions in existence already, and yet needing still to be prepared? For if they were not in existence, He would have said, “I go to prepare.” And yet, because their present state of existence is such as still to stand in need of preparation, He does not go to prepare them in the same sense as they already exist; but if He go and prepare them as they shall be hereafter, He will come again and receive His own to Himself: that where He is, there they may be also. How then are there mansions in the Father’s house, and these not different ones but the same, which already exist in a sense in which they can admit of no preparation, and yet do not exist, inasmuch as they are still to be prepared? How are we to think of this, but in the same way as the prophet, who also declares of God, that He has [already] made that which is yet to be. For he says not, Who will make what is yet to be, but, “Who has made what is yet to be.” Therefore He has both made such things and is yet to make them. For they have not been