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TRACTATEl On I In 1.1-2.1 I HAT WHICH was from the beginning, which we have heard and which we have seen with our eyes and our hands have handled: the Word oflife." Who is he who handles the Word with his hands except that "the Word was made flesh and dwelt among US,,?I Now this Word that was made flesh that it might be handled by hands began to be flesh from the Virgin Mary. But the Word did not then begin; for Oohn] said, "That which was from the beginning." See if his Epistle does not confirm his Gospel where just a little while ag02 you heard, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God.,,3 Perhaps concerning "the Word of life" one might so take it as a kind of speaking about Christ, not as the very body ofChrist which was handled by hands.4 See what follows: "And the Life itself was manifested." Therefore Christ is the Word of Life. And in what way was [the Life] manifested? For it "was from the beginning," but it was not manifested to men; it was, however, manifested to the angels, seeing [it] and feedI . Cf. In 1.14. 2. modo. The gospel reading for Easter Sunday on which the Tractate was delivered wasJ n I, and it was read at the morning service. S. Poque has clearly established, as was discussed in the introduction above, that there were two assemblies of Augustine's congregation on each day of Easter Week and that this sermon was given at the evening service, while the Gospel was read at the morning service. Hence the translation. See Poque, Les Lectures, 222-26. 3. Cf.Jn 1.1. 4. Augustine seems to be indirectly offering an explanation of the brachyological syntax of this sentence which lacks a main clause and in which the phrase, "of the Word of life," (I In 1.1) is semantically ambiguous. He seems to take the "sentence" rather as a title of this epistle: "On the Word of life which we. .. ." Likewise he equates the Word of life with Christ and sees a clear reference to J n 1.1. For a thorough discussion of this complex sentence see R. E. Brown, The Epistles ofJohn, in The Anchor Bible (Garden City, New York, 1982) 30. 152-66. In the prologue and the opening sentence of this tractate Augustine calls this work an epistle and raises no questions about its genre; a good summary of modern views is given by Brown, 86-92. 121 122 ST. AUGUSTINE ing upon [it] as their bread. But what does Scripture say? "Man ate the bread ofangels.,,5 Therefore, Life itself was manifested in the flesh; for it was proffered in manifestation in order that the reality that can be seen by the heart alone might be seen also by the eyes, in order that it might heal hearts. For the Word is seen by the heart alone, but the flesh is seen by the body's eyes also. We had the means whereby to see the flesh, but we did not have the means whereby to see the Word: "the Word was made flesh" that we could see in order that that whereby we might see the Word might be healed in us. 2. "And we have seen and are witnesses." Perhaps some of the brethren who are not conversant with Greek do not know what "witnesses" are in Greek. And it is a name commonly used by all and endowed with sacred awe. For those whom we call "witnesses" in Latin are "martyrs" in Greek. Now who has not heard of martyrs, or in what Christian's mouth does the name of martyrs not dwell daily? And may it dwell also in the heart in such a way that we imitate the sufferings of the martyrs , [but] do not follow them all the way to the finish-line.6 Therefore he said this: "We have seen and we are witnesses"; we have seen and we are martyrs. For by affirming their witness from what they heard from those who saw, when the witness itself displeased the men against whom it was affirmed, they suffered all the things that martyrs suffered. The martyrs are God's witnesses. God wanted to have men as witnesses in order that men also may have God as a witness. 5. Cf. Ps 77-25 (LXX). 6. non eos calcibus persequamur...

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