Commentarii in Joannem Additamenta

Since as God he knew the intentions of the Jews and saw them mocking what he said about dying for the sheep, he shows from what is said that they are so impious as to mock even those things which God and Father greatly loves, since he saw the image of his own nature remaining untainted in his incarnate Son and shining forth because of its immutability. Up to here the sixth book of Saint Cyril. Others said: these words are not of a demon-possessed man, and so forth. From the quality of the words they determine the correct judgment; for it was madness to say this, that the good shepherd will die unhesitatingly and readily risk his life for his own sheep, but the hireling, who is not a shepherd, will flee and merely at the sight of the wolf become petrified, because he has a demon and is mad. Why do you listen to him? The beginning of obedience is affinity; for faith makes us akin to God, and affinity makes us wise, but these are not wise in receiving teachings that are beneficial for salvation. By calling them alien he indicates that they were his sheep, and also those from the Gentiles who were about to believe, and he threatened them with the migration which was to the Gentiles, so that even through the threat he might frighten them into thinking what is proper. Giving what he had as God by nature, receiving as man and bringing back to his own glory, he himself by himself and going toward this. For if the works did not bear witness to my words, by which I said I am equal to the Father, you would not be indignant at what I said about being God by nature, if all my works did not show me to be God by nature.

For if I had blasphemed, he says, by calling myself God, it would be reasonable for you to think that through what I have done I appear more greatly as God, and for this reason you seek to kill me. The only-begotten and sanctifier of all others, all that by participation in being sanctified ascends to sanctification. Now something is said to be sanctified in divine scripture in many ways. Therefore it was sanctified, that is, it was appointed for a mission in the world for the sake of saving those in it, or you would understand that something sanctified is that which is set apart for sacrifice; for one died for all by the good will of God and Father. Or to make his own body a holy temple; for the flesh was not holy by its own nature, but having received sanctification from the Word united to it, it was sanctified, and according to this, I think, he says this. 7 He also speaks against the Arians and says that this is not similar to what was said to the disciples; for the Lord, having said to them, "If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept the commandments of the Father and remain in his love," interpreting that he who does his commandments remains in the love of Christ, which does not lead the disciples to consubstantiality with the Son, since they are able also to fall away by no longer wishing to do his commandments, even if the Son unchangeably does what is pleasing to the Father as God by nature, even if as man he says these things for our benefit, so that we might imitate him as far as possible. Therefore we understand willing and not willing not in terms of substances and nature, but in terms of choice, which is the case with the disciples, but not with the Son.

For from the natural goods that belong to the Son we understand that he is consubstantial with the Father, and not from those things that come to be and pass away in us. The evangelist also explains the hardness of the Jews, who were not softened by such good words, but sought to seize and kill him, and the strength of the Savior. Being God by nature, he escaped from the midst of their hands while they were raging; for the evangelist said this in wonder, indicating that he easily and without danger escaped from among the murderers, and would never have been caught unless he had willingly allowed it. 9 Therefore, because of the love of the women, their brother also was worthy of being loved by Christ, since indeed Christ loved him greatly. How is it not unreasonable for them to believe that he came there to wake him? Hence they say: if he has fallen asleep, he will be saved. They do not think he is speaking about sleep or about death, but they think he is saying some riddle, since, as he had traveled some fifteen stadia, he would not have arrived in time to wake him.

Since Christ saw that she did not understand clearly, he says, making his meaning plain: "I am the life," that is to say, you need not ask for me from another, nor hope that your brother's resurrection will happen after a long time; for I am present, I who summon to this. The Son is by nature life, who calls all things into being and raises everyone by his own power, and raises them not simply, but to life; for this reason he has also joined the name "life" to the name "resurrection." It should be noted that the Lord calls himself "life," not "a living being," as some have impiously dared to say of him; for there is a difference between a living being and life: a living being is receptive of life, while life is productive of living, just as wisdom and the wise man are different—the one receives, the other gives. For just as the saints of old did not yet attain to the resurrection and its honors, but waited for us, so also the faithful must wait for the common resurrection, so that all may rise together with the saints of old. Just as they waited on our account, not receiving the honors owed to them so that all might enjoy them together, so also we do not enjoy the resurrection alone, so that, rising together with the saints of old, we may all obtain the good.

13 For he seems to have considered what is said in the Psalms: "Command, O God, your power; strengthen, O God, this which you have wrought in us," understanding "command" in a manner befitting God, even if it is spoken in human words, leading us from our own circumstances to a conception above us. 14 The evangelist called the sharp threat against death a "rebuke." 15 Just as, then, when Christ goes forward to the tomb of Lazarus, it is written that "Jesus, rebuking, comes to the tomb," so in his case we understand the rebuke as a kind of movement according to authoritative will. 16 The command is befitting God and kingly. For this reason the Savior cries out contrary to his usual manner, so that through the type of Lazarus he might prefigure the general resurrection, and the manner in which it will occur, when the trumpet sounds loudly and the dead are raised by the power of God. He does not pray here, nor does he say "Thus says the Lord," lest he be thought of in the position of a servant, but authoritatively, as God, he calls the dead man from the tomb. And he immediately came out, since nothing opposes God when he commands, in order to show that the resurrection of all will occur in an instant and in the blink of an eye, just as happened in the case of Lazarus. He comes out bound, to assure the onlookers, preserving entirely the form of the dead, lest anyone say that Lazarus had not died at all. Having become incorrupt, humans, thus pleasing God, seek to be sinless. How must one understand what is said, and that they have become in their mind and alien to passions, attending only to good things? But since every

The world had put on the yoke of slavery, serving creation and being tyrannically ruled by Satan through the excesses of the passions. God introduced the law through the holy men, having kindled for us a little light of the knowledge of God. But since the majority, being hard of hearing, were not persuaded because of the error that held them fast, we needed not only the counsel of the holy men, but also the goodwill and grace from above, easily transferring us to the better. The holy men led the nations and idolaters, those wronged by the devil and led astray from the straight path, as if by force. For the devil was then powerful and hard to overcome for those who resisted, until God, acting as judge, set them free. For as a just judge, he was able to have mercy on them as weak and crushed by the unbearable excess, and to punish the one who had cruelly attacked the weaker. Therefore Christ, the righteousness of God and Father, having appeared, led us into the light of the knowledge of God, having justified us through faith. Therefore the time of Christ's advent already showed the judgment and penalty upon the nations. For they were about to be released from the devil's excess, Christ, the just judge, rightly having mercy on them. And this is what the passage means: for the world is not now condemned, when the time for being justified was present. For understanding it thus, we do not contradict that other passage which says: For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.

Nor, as some claim, does he here call the world the Jews who crucified the Lord, who were required to pay the penalty for their audacities against Christ; for the death of Christ justifies all humanity. Therefore it is more consistent to understand it in this way. Consequently, according to this understanding, the judgment will be against the one who wronged the world, not against the one who suffered the world's injustice. And the one who came to save us fittingly accomplished this by punishing the wrongdoer and showing mercy to the wronged; the definition of this present judgment is that the ruler of this world be cast out. He calls him ruler not because he is truly such—for God alone is king of all—but because men in their folly appointed him as their ruler. Thus he received the title from the circumstance; for sin is also said to have reigned over the impious, even though it is something insubstantial, from the fact that sinners, by their actions, seem to subject themselves to it. Either he is cast out from his rule, his power having been shattered, or "outside" signifies punishment and descent into Hades; for the devil was justly cast there, since he not only warred against men but also against the God of all, Jesus. Therefore, though formerly unacquainted with bonds and punishment, he now was required to pay the penalty for his audacities, having reached the extreme of all impiety. He recounts many accusations against the Jews; for many signs did not move them, but they were in a way unyielding in their hard-heartedness, with nothing lacking for their correction.

But even if the Jews were shamed into believing, it was impossible for the Holy Spirit, which spoke through the prophet Isaiah about their unbelief, to lie; for they neither believed the prophets, nor did Christ, the power and arm of the Father, become known to the Jews. He spoke hyperbolically in saying "no one" because few out of many were saved. Wishing to expose their excessive perversity, the evangelist added also the preceding, showing that they did not believe even what they saw. The arm of God the Father is the Son. From what is here revealed, that the Son has such glory as Isaiah saw, it is clear that there is no difference between Father and Son; for there is nothing greater that a man can behold, nor does Scripture say anything greater than this; for the Seraphim, which Isaiah saw beneath the throne of God, are above and more honored than all angels. The phrase "of the throne" signifies either the nature of the Lord or that he sits in royal order with creation standing by in the form of servitude. What he says is this: he who is able to recognize who it is that dwells in the flesh and who grasps the intelligible and better contemplation truly finds me. And he finds in faith in me faith in the Father. It is similar, then, as if he said: he who believes in me does not believe in a man, but in the power of God, in whom the Father is known and believed.