Tractates on the Gospel of John 28–54

Tractate 53

TRACTATE 53 On John 12.37-43 FTER THE Lord Christ had foretold his passion and his fruitful death in the lifting up of the cross, where he said that he would draw all things after himself, since the Jews had understood that he had spoken about his death and had asked him how he could say that he would die since they heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever , he encouraged them that, while yet a little light was in them, by which they had learned that Christ was eternal, they might walk that they might learn the whole in order that they not be overcome by the darkness. And when he had said these things, he hid himself from them. You learned these things in the readings and words of the previous Lord's day.1 2. Then the Evangelist continued with the words from which today's brief passage was read, and he said, "Now, although he had done so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him, so that the words of the prophet Isaiah in which he said, 'Lord, who has believed what has reached our ears? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?' might be fulfilled"2 Here he shows well that the Son of God was himself called the arm of God, not because God the Father is limited by the shape of human flesh and the Son adheres to him as a limb of the body; but rather because all things were made through him, he was called, therefore, the arm of God. Forjust as it is your arm through which you work, so his word was called the arm of God, because through the Word he constructed the world. For why does a person, in 1. This refers to the readings and words of the last Lord's day (Dominica dies). Cf. Tractate 52.11-14. 2 . In is quoting Is 53.1. 290 TRACTATE 53 291 order to construct something, stretch out his arm except because what he said is not immediately done? If, however, he possessed superior capability from· so great a power that, without any movement of his body, whatever he said would happen, his word would be his arm. But the Lord Jesus, the only-begotten Son ofGod the Father,just as he is not a limb of the Father's body, so he is not a conceptual or sounding and passing word; but when all things were made through him, he was God's Word. 3. Therefore, when we hear that the Son of God is the arm of God the Father, let ordinary ideas about bodies not impede us; but as far as we can, by his gift, let us think of the Power and Wisdom of God,3 through which all things were made. Such an arm, to be sure, is neither stretched forth and extended , nor drawn in and pulled back.4 For he himself is not he who is the Father, but he himself and the Father are one thing;5 and equal to the Father, he is everywhere whole as the Father. Let no occasion provide an opening for the abominable error of those who say that there is only the Father, but that according to a difference of conditions,6 he is called the Son, he is called the Holy Spirit. And in respect to these words may they not dare to say: Look, you see that there is only the Father if his arm is the Son; for a man and his arm are not two persons but one. They do not understand or observe how words are transferred from some things to other things be3 . Cf. 1 Cor 1.24. 4. This probably has reference to the Sabellian heresy (see Tractate 29.7, note 17) and a particular notion of Sabellius that changes in the mode of being of the one God occur through self-extensions (ltA