Tractates on the Gospel of John 55–111

Tractate 94

TRACTATE 94 On John 16.4–7 hen the Lord Jesus had foretold to his disciples the persecutions that they were going to suffer after his departure, he then added and said, “But these things I did not say to you from the beginning because I was with you; but now I go to him who sent me.”1 And here first of all we must see whether he had not [already] before foretold to them their future sufferings. But the other three Evangelists show pretty well that he had foretold these things before the Supper occurred;2 but, according to John, after it was finished he told these things, where he said, “But these things I did not say to you from the beginning because I was with you.” Or perhaps is this question resolved from this fact, that those [Evangelists], too, report that he was very close to the Passion when he said these things? Not, therefore, from the beginning [of the time] when he was with them, since now, as he was about to depart, and now, as he was about to proceed to the Father, he said these things; and for that reason even according to those Evangelists what was said here is true: “But these things I did not say to you from the beginning .” (2) But how are we to deal with the reliability of the Gospel according to Matthew, whose recollection is that these things had been announced to them by the Lord, not only when he was then about to sup with the disciples at the Feast of the Passover when the Passion was close at hand, but 180 1. Douay assigns all of this sentence to verse 5; all other texts and translations used for this translation assign the first part of the sentence to verse 4 and the second part to verse 5. 2. Cf. Mt 24.9, Mk 13.9–13, Lk 21.12–17. TRACTATE 94 181 also from the beginning, where the twelve are first expressly designated as Apostles, name by name, and sent to divine works?3 What, then, does what he said here mean: “But these things I did not say to you from the beginning because I was with you,” except that the things that he says here about the Holy Spirit, that he will come to them and bear testimony when they will suffer those evils, these [are the] things he did not say to them from the beginning when he was with them?4 2. Therefore, that Comforter5 or Advocate6 (for each word translates what is in Greek Paraclete) had been necessary when Christ departed, and therefore he had not spoken about him from the beginning [of the time] when he was with them because they were consoled by his [bodily] presence;7 but, as he was about to depart, it was proper for 3. Cf. Mt 10.2. On the use of the word apostle in John and the synoptic Gospels see Tractate 59.1, note 1. 4. Augustine reconciles the Johannine and Matthaean passages by asserting that Jesus had not foretold to them at first that the Holy Spirit would be present to them to give comfort and support in their sufferings; they knew of suffering and they knew the Holy Spirit would inspire their preaching, but that he would help them through pain and suffering, this they learn only here at the Last Supper. 5. Consolator, as an interpretation of paracletus in Jn 14.16, to refer to the Holy Spirit. See TLL 4.478 for numerous references to this usage in Christian Latin. Augustine also uses the word to refer to Christ, e.g., Sermo 264.2 (PL 38.1213), and to God, e.g., DCD 1.14 (CCL 47.15). Jerome, Epistola 120.9 (PL 22.997), indicates that consolator can translate paracletus as the Holy Spirit but can also be used to designate each Person of the Trinity. 6. Advocatus, another interpretation of paracletus (see note 5). Blaise, Dictionnaire, 63–64, s.v. 2, cites this passage for advocatus to designate the Holy Spirit; at Tr in Ep Io 1.7 (SC 75.128–31), commenting on 1 Jn 2.1, following the Latin text of 1 Jn, and at Sermo 58.1 (PL 38.393) Augustine applies the term to Christ. Tertullian in De Monogamia 3.10, De Ieiunio 13.5, and De Pudicitia 16.22 (CCL 2.1232–33, 1272, 1314), all works from...