Tractates on the Gospel of John 55–111

Tractate 106

TRACTATE 106 On John 17.6–8 n t h i s discourse, as he himself bestows, we are going to examine these words of the Lord, which are as follows: “I have made known your name to the men you have given me out of the world.” Now, if he says this only about these disciples with whom he supped and to whom, before he began to pray, he spoke so many words, it does not pertain to that glorification (i.e., clarificatio or, as others have translated it [in Latin], glorificatio)1 about which he spoke earlier2 by which the Son glorifies [i.e., clarificat or glorificat] the Father. For how great a glory is it and of what sort to have become known to twelve mortals, or eleven rather? (2) But if by his words, “I have made known your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world,” he intended all to be understood, even those who would come to believe in him, belonging to his great Church, which was to be from all nations, about which one sings in the psalm, “In the great Church, I will confess to you,”3 it is clearly this glorification by which the Son glorifies the Father when he makes his name known to all nations and to so many generations of people. And this statement of his, “I have made known your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world,” is such as is that which he had said a little before , “I have glorified you on the earth,”4 putting both there and here the past for the future tense, as one who knew that 265 1. See Tractates 82.1, notes 1 and 2, 101.1, 104.3, and 105.3. 2. Cf. Jn 17.1–6. 3. Ps 34.18 (LXX). 4. Jn 17.4. it was predestined for this to be done and saying, therefore, that he had done what he would without any doubt do. 2. But that he had said what he said, “I have made known your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world,” about these men who were already his disciples, the words that follow show to be the more credible. For when he had said this, he added, “Yours they were and to me you gave them; and they have kept your word. Now they have known that all things that you have given me are from you, because the words that you have given me I have given to them. And they have received them and have known in truth that I came out from you, and they have believed that you sent me.” All these things, though, could be said about all the future believers, as already effected, [but] in hope5 since they were things yet to be. But that it should be understood that he spoke these words about those disciples only whom he had at that time, that which he says a little later is more impelling: “When I was with them, I kept them in your name; those whom you gave me have I kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the Scripture may be fulfilled,”6 signifying Judas who betrayed him; for indeed from that number of twelve Apostles he alone was lost. (2) Then he goes on, “Now, however, I come to you.”7 And from this it is clear that he had said about his bodily presence, “When I was with them, I kept them,” as if he were no longer with them in that presence. For in that way he intended to signify his approaching Ascension about which he said, “Now, however, I come to you,” as he was about to go, of course, to the right hand of the Father from where he would come for judging the living and the dead in exactly the same bodily presence, according to the rule of faith and sound doctrine. For by spiritual presence he was going to be with them, of course, after his Ascension, and with his whole Church in this world even to the consummation of the ST. AUGUSTINE 266 5. There is a variant reading, specie perfecta, “once they were outwardly effected.” H. Browne, LFC 29.962, translates this variant “visibly perfected .” 6. Jn 17.12. 7. Jn 17.13. [18.220.59.69] Project MUSE (2024...