Discourses on the Gospel of John

The essay “Discourses on the Gospel of John” was compiled in 407-417. and presents 124 interpretations of various passages from the Gospel of John. Probably some comments were made by the blj. Aurelius Augustine in the church and written down by stenographers, the rest were dictated to scribes. The most important themes are the mystery of the incarnate Christ and the Holy Spirit, the unity of the Church. The first interpretations contain polemics against the Donatists and Manichaeans. This publication presents a translation from Latin into Russian of the 1st homily (“Discourses”) on John 1:1-5. Due to direct translation, quotations from the Holy Scriptures differ from the generally accepted reading. *The title of the work in Latin is Tractatus in Iohannis Evangelium. Reasoning 1. On John. 1, 1–5 “Discourses on the Gospel of John” (Tractatus in Iohannis Euangelium) are one hundred and twenty-four interpretations of different parts of the Gospel of John, created by Augustine sequentially, but over a long period of time, not earlier than 406. Some of them, at least the first ones, were actually sermons delivered in the church (homilies, which, in fact, is what the Latin name tractatus means), recorded by stenographers. The rest, mostly shorter ones, seem to have been dictated to the scribes, although the discussion about this never led to generally accepted conclusions. Most scholars agree that the first twelve Discourses were delivered by Augustine in sequence, but were interspersed with commentaries on the fifteen Songs of Ascent, and therefore date back to the winter of 406–407. At the beginning of Easter week 407, Augustine interrupted this sequence by choosing the First Epistle of John as the new text for interpretation. The timing of the pronouncement of the first homilies explains the severity of the anti-Donatist polemics in them. In addition, the first homily also contains anti-Manichaean themes. The best edition of this first group of interpretations, in our opinion, is the 71st volume of the Bibliotheque augustinienne, including homilies 1–16 (Homelies sur l’Evangile de saint Jean I–XVI Traduction, introduction et notes par M.-F. Berrouard. Paris, 1993; this latest edition has been supplemented, in comparison with the previous ones, with important corrections and additions on p. 1005–1008). The publication was prepared by the largest French Augustinian Marie-François Berroir; in addition to the Latin text and the French translation with footnotes, it contains an extensive preface and a whole corpus (more than a hundred pages) of “additional remarks,” some of which could form independent articles. Those who wish to study the Discourses in more depth will absolutely need to consult this volume. Let us give, for example, a list of “additional notes” with which the publisher provided only the first homily: Animalis homo. – On the content of the concept of “spiritual man/animal” in Augustine. Caritas uestra. – “Your love,” Augustine’s form of address to the flock, which in our translation for simplicity we translate as “beloved.” John the Evangelist is like a mountain. – About the meaning of this image in connection with other works of Augustine. Inner teacher. – A summary of this famous Augustine theme. Sin is nothing. – About the non-substantiality of evil and sin as its manifestation. The origin of animals and people according to the Manichaean doctrine. Disorder is punished by disorder. - About the fact that a person who leaves subordination to God loses his position in the order of things. Quod factum est, in illo uita est. – Features of the syntactic division of the verses of John. 1:3–4 and its meaning. Presenting to the reader for the first time the Russian translation of the first Discourse, we are forced to justify ourselves not only in the fact that all quotations from the Holy Scriptures are translated directly from Latin (only this practice, which has become common for translations from Augustine, allows us to display both the features of the Latin text of Scripture used by Augustine and the originality of his understanding of certain places), but also in the fact that the text itself of the first five verses of the interpreted Gospel, so important and revered in the Church, was accepted in translation this unusual look: John 1:1–5. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It was in the beginning with God. Everything was created through Him, and without Him there is nothing. Whatever was created has life in Him. And life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not accept it. Particular features of such a transmission of the text become clear in the context of the sermon, but we must explain some of the most important ones right away. Verse 3: “it was created” instead of “it began to be.” The Greek verb γιγνεσθαι, rendered in Russian as “to begin to be,” is translated into Latin by forms of the verb fio. However, the perfect of this semi-depositional verb (factus sum) is at the same time the passive perfect of the verb facio - “to do, to create.” Since it is creation through the Word that is considered in the immediate context of interpretation and at the same time it is emphasized that the Word was not created, but everything was created through Him (moreover, several times the participle factus, included in the passive form of the perfect factus sum, is used in the adjective sense: “created, created”), the translation “was created” is necessary to ensure the unity of meaning. Verse 3: “And without Him there is nothing.” In the second hemistich I skip the "not made" theme and leave only the "without Him is nothing" theme to preserve the ambiguity that Augustine points out. Since in Latin only one negation is allowed, the phrase "sine illo factum est nihil" can in principle be understood as "without him nothing was created" and as "without him nothing was created." Augustine carefully warns his listeners against the second possibility of understanding in the 13th paragraph. However, if we give the exact Russian translation “without him nothing was created,” then the negation of the verb will exclude the possibility of such a misunderstanding - and, therefore, the entire corresponding passage of interpretation will lose meaning. Verse 3-4: “What was created, in Him is life.” It is known that many early indirect witnesses to the Greek text suggest that the clause δ γεγονεν (“what came to be” or in our translation “what was created”) refers to the next clause rather than the previous one (see, for example, Metzger’s commentary on these verses: “Metzger B.” A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament). The same is the case with the early Latin witnesses (in which, by the way, the verb “is” is also in the present tense, as in the text used by Augustine). In addition, for Augustine it is important that the addition “in Him” does not refer to “created”, but to “there is life.” In other words, he understands the above phrase as follows: “What was created is life in Him (that is, in the Divine Word) (and is not in Him not).” Verse 6: “received.” The translation is explained by the context of paragraph 19. Perhaps Russian readers, familiar with John Chrysostom’s interpretation of the same text, will think that Augustine’s sermon is not as sublime either in thought or in style as the interpreted text deserved. However, Augustine spoke for his flock and tried to be understandable even to the simplest. The “humiliated” character of his word, explaining the divine word of the Gospel, imitates the humiliation of the eternal Word, which condescended to accept human nature in its weakness. 1. Thinking about what we recently heard from the apostolic reading, namely, that the natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit of God (1 Cor. 2:14), and believing that among such a multitude of you, beloved brothers, there are inevitably many natural people who still think according to the flesh and cannot yet rise to spiritual understanding, I am tormented by perplexity: how can I say how much the Lord will give, or explain in your small measure what was read from the Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was from God, and the Word was God”? For a spiritual person cannot understand this. So, brothers, should we shut up now? Why then read if you keep silent? Why listen if there is no explanation? And why explain if they don’t understand? And therefore, since, on the other hand, I have no doubt that among you there are those who can not only understand the explanation, but also understand what has not yet been explained, I will not deceive the expectations of those who can understand, for fear of saying too much for the ears of those who cannot understand. Moreover, God’s mercy will help, so that perhaps it will be possible to please everyone, and let everyone understand that he can, because the one who speaks 1 says what he can. For who can say it as it is? I dare say, my brothers, that John himself did not say it as it is, but said it as best he could: he was a man, but he spoke about God; albeit inspired by God, but still a man. Being inspired, he was able to say something, however, being inspired by a person, he did not say everything that is, but he said what a person could say. 2. For this John, beloved brothers, was from those mountains about which it is written: “Let the mountains receive peace for Your people and the hills righteousness” (Ps. 71:3) 2. Mountains are tall souls, hills are small souls. But the mountains perceive the world so that the hills can perceive the truth. What is this truth that the hills perceive? This is faith, for “the righteous live by faith” (Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17) 3. However, lesser souls would not have received faith if the greater souls, which are called mountains, had not been illuminated by this wisdom, so that they could pass through themselves for infants what infants can receive, and so that the hills could live by faith thanks to the fact that the mountains received the world. From these mountains the world hears: “Peace be with you” (John 20:19) 4. These mountains, while proclaiming peace to the Church, were not divided against Him from Whom they received peace: they proclaim peace in truth, and not counterfeitly. 3. There are other mountains, shipwrecks, on which a ship, if it runs into, perishes. He who is in distress can easily rush to the ground; but sometimes the earth appears as a mountain, and under the mountain there are rocks, and when someone rushes towards the mountain, he encounters the rocks and finds there not a harbor, but death. There were such mountains, and they were seen as large among people, and they created heresies and schisms, and divided the Church of God. But these mountains that divided the Church of God were not those about which it is said: “Let the mountains receive peace for Your people.” For how could those who shared the unity perceive peace? 4. But those who perceived the world in order to proclaim it to the people contemplated wisdom itself, as far as it was possible for the human heart to do that which neither the eye has seen, nor the ear has heard, nor has entered into the heart of man (1 Cor. 2:9) 5. If this did not come to the heart of man, how did it come to the heart of John? Or was John not a man? Or, perhaps, this did not ascend to John’s heart, but John’s heart ascended to this wisdom? After all, what ascends into the heart of a person ascends from below in relation to the person, and that where the heart of a person ascends, then above the person. Truly, brothers, we can say that if this arose in the heart of John (if it is possible to say so in some way), then it arose in the heart of John to the extent that John was not a man. What do you mean he wasn't human? As much as he became an angel, for all saints are angels, since they are messengers of God. Therefore, what does the apostle say to those of the flesh and of the soul who cannot understand the things of God? “When you say: “I am Pavlov; I am Apollosov,” are you not human?” (1 Cor. 3, 4) 6. What did he want from those whom he reproached for being human? Do you want to know what he wanted from them? Listen to the psalms: “I said: you are all gods and sons of the Most High” (Ps. 81:6) 7. This is what God is calling us to do: to not be human. But only then will we not be human, but will be better than human if we first recognize ourselves as human, that is, if we ascend to this height from humility; otherwise, if we consider ourselves something, being nothing, we will not only not receive what we are not, but also lose what we are. 5. So, brothers, from such mountains was John, who said: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This mountain perceived the world, it contemplated the divinity of the Word. What was this mountain like? How high? She has surpassed all the peaks of the earth, surpassed all the spaces of the air, surpassed all the heights of the stars, surpassed all the choirs and legions of angels. For if she had not surpassed all this created, she would not have reached the One through whom all this was created. Are you asking about heaven and earth? They are created. Are you asking about those in heaven and on earth? They are even more created. Are you asking about spiritual creations, about Angels, Archangels, Thrones, Dominions, Powers, Principalities? And they are created. Having listed all this, the psalm concludes: “He spoke, and it was created; He commanded, and it was created” (Ps. 149:5) 8. If He spoke and it was created, then it was created by the word; and since all this was created by the word, then John’s heart could not have ascended to what he says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” if he had not surpassed everything that was created by the Word. What a mountain this is, how sacred, how high among those mountains that received the world for the people of God so that the hills could receive the truth! 6. Look now, brothers, whether John was not from those mountains about which we sang a little earlier: “I lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to me” 9 (Ps. 120:1). So, my brothers, if you want to understand, lift up your eyes to this mountain, that is, lift up to the Evangelist, lift up to his understanding. But since these mountains perceive the world, and in the world there cannot be one who puts hope in a person, then do not lift your eyes to this mountain, putting hope in this mountain; and having said: “I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to me,” immediately add: “My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Ps. 120:2). So, let us lift our eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to us; but we need to place hope not in the mountains themselves, for in order to give us, the mountains themselves receive what they give us - which means we need to place hope where the mountains receive it from. When we lift our eyes to the Scriptures, then, since the Scriptures were delivered to us by people, we lift our eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to us; but since those who wrote the Scriptures were men, they did not shine by themselves, but “He was the true Light, who enlightens every man who comes into this world” (John 1:9). That John the Baptist was also a mountain, who said: “I am not the Christ” (John 1:20), so that anyone, putting hope in the mountain, would not fall away from Him who illuminates the mountain; and he also confessed 10, that “from His fullness we have all received” (John 1:16). So you must say: “I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from where help will come for me,” but not attribute this help coming to you to the mountains, but then say: “My help is from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” 7. In addition to all this, brothers, I exhort you, so that with the voice of the Scriptures, with the voice of the Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was from God, and the Word was God,” and other things that have been read, you understand that you have lifted up your eyes to the mountains. For if the mountains had not said this, you would not have found how to think about it at all. This means that help came to us from the mountains so that you could at least hear this; but you still cannot understand what you have heard. Call for help from the Lord, who created heaven and earth, because the mountains could speak, but they themselves could not enlighten, since they themselves were enlightened by listening. Therefore, brothers, the one who spoke, John himself, who reclined on the breast of the Lord and drank from the breast of the Lord what he brought to us, also perceived this. But he conveyed the words to us, and you must extract the meaning from where the one who conveyed it to you drank: lift your eyes to the mountains, from where help will come to you, so that you can accept from there, as if a cup, that is, the word offered to you; and yet, since your help comes from the Lord, who created heaven and earth, you need to fill your heart 11 from the same place where John filled it; that is why you said: “My help comes from the Lord, who created heaven and earth.” So let the Mighty One fill the hearts. Brethren, this is what I say: let every one lift up his heart as far as he finds it possible, and accept what is spoken of. But you may say that I am closer to you than God. Not at all! He is much closer: you see me with your eyes, and He presides in your consciousness. Your ears are directed towards me, and your heart towards Him, so that you fill both. Behold, you raise your eyes and all bodily perception to us, and not even to us (for we are not from those mountains), but to the Gospel itself, to the Evangelist himself; but lift up your heart to be filled with the Lord. Let everyone raise his heart in such a way that he can see what he is building and where he is building it. What do I mean by this: what is he building and where is he building? Let him see what kind of heart he lifts up, for he lifts it up to the Lord; otherwise, burdened with the burden of bodily lust, he will fall before he has time to ascend. But if everyone sees that he bears the burden of the flesh, let him try to purify by abstinence what he has to lead to God. For “blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8) 12. 8. Otherwise, what is the benefit of saying the words: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was from God, and the Word was God”? After all, when we spoke, we also uttered words. Well, did God have such a word? Didn't what we said sound and pass? So, did God’s Word sound and end? How was it that everything was created through Him and without Him nothing? How, then, through Him is the control of everything that was created through Him, if it sounded and passed? What is this Word that sounds and does not pass away? Listen, brothers, this is a matter of great importance. From everyday speaking, words have lost value in our eyes; they sound and pass and therefore have lost value, and we see: these are nothing more than words. There is a word in man himself, one that resides inside, while the sound comes out from the mouth. There is a word that is actually pronounced by the spirit: the one that you understand from the sound, and not the sound itself. This is the word I say when I say “God.” How short is what I said: three letters and one syllable! This is all of God: three letters and one syllable? Or perhaps, as little as this is valuable, so dear is what is meant by it? What happened in your heart when you heard: “God”? What happened in your heart when I said: “God”? A certain highest essence came to mind, which surpasses every changeable creation, carnal and mental. And if I tell you: “Is God subject to change or not?” - you will immediately answer: “I can neither believe nor imagine that God is subject to change. God is unchangeable! Your soul, no matter how small it was, no matter how carnal it was, could only answer me this way: that God is unchangeable; however, the entire creation is subject to change - how could you reach with a spark of thought that which is above all creation, and now you confidently answer that God is not subject to change? What happens in your heart when you think about some living, constant, omnipotent, infinite, omnipresent, everywhere integral, not contained in anything essence? When you think about this, this is the word about God in your heart. But is this a sound that consists of three letters and one syllable? So, everything that is said and passes by are sounds, letters, syllables. The word that sounds passes, and the word that the sound signifies, which is in the thinker who spoke, and in the understander who heard, remains even after the sounds have passed. 9. Pay attention to this word. If you can have a word in your heart, like a plan, born in your mind, so that your mind gives birth to a plan, and the plan is there as a product of your mind, as the son of your heart - after all, first the heart gives birth to a plan to build some kind of building, to build something impressive on earth; the idea has already been born, but the work is not yet completed; you see what you are going to do, but another can only marvel when you have made and built the building in its entirety and brought it to finishing and perfection; people will look at the marvelous structure and be amazed at the builder’s plan; they are frozen by what they see, and captivated by what they do not see: who can see the design? - so, if some great structure deserves praise for human design, then do you want to see what kind of plan of God is the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, the Word of God? Look at the building of this world; see what is created through the Word - and then you will know what this Word is like. Look at these two world bodies: heaven and earth. Who can describe in words the beauty of the sky? Who can describe in words the fruitfulness of the earth? Who can truly praise the succession of seasons? Who will truly praise the power of the seed? You see that I pass over in silence so that, while talking about a lot, I might not say less than you think. So, from this building, understand what the Word is by means of which this building was created. And not only that! After all, all this can be seen, because it all concerns the bodily senses. But through this Word, Angels were also created, through this Word, Archangels, Powers, Thrones, Dominions, Principalities were created; everything was created through the Word - think from this what the Word is! 13 10. Perhaps someone can answer me: “Who can understand this Word?” Therefore, do not imagine anything ordinary when you hear about the Word, and do not imagine the words that you hear about every day: “he told me such and such words,” “he said such and such words,” “you are telling me such and such words”: from the frequent repetition of the word “word” itself, the words seem to have lost their value. And when you hear: “In the beginning was the Word,” then, so that you don’t think about something so ordinary that you usually imagine when you hear about human words, listen to what you should think about: “The Word was God.” 11. Let some wicked Arian now come in and say that the Word of God was created. How can it be that the Word of God was created if God created everything through the Word? If the Word of God Himself was created, then through what other Word was It created? If you say that there is a Word of the Word through which It was created, then I will call Him the Only Begotten Word of God. But if you do not recognize the Word of the Word, then agree that He, through Whom all things were created, was not created. That by which everything was created could not have happened by itself. Therefore, believe the Evangelist. After all, he could say: “In the beginning God created the Word,” just as Moses said: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen. 1:1), and lists everything in the same way: “God said: let it be! - and it was created” (Gen. 1:3–27) 14. If he “said”, then who said? Obviously God. What was created? Some kind of creation. Between the speaking God and the created creation there was nothing less than the Word, by whom the creation was created. This Word cannot be changed. Although changeable things are created through the Word, It Itself is unchangeable. 12. Therefore, do not consider that to be created by which everything was created: otherwise you cannot be recreated through the Word, which recreates everything. However, if your belief about the Word is wrong, you cannot be the recreated Word. And if it happened to you to be created through the Word, so that you were created through Him, then you destroy yourself; and if you destroy yourself, then let the One who created you recreate you; if you have become worse because of yourself, then let the One who created you transform you. But how will He restore you through the Word if you think wrongly about the Word? The Evangelist says: “In the beginning was the Word,” but you say that the Word was created. The evangelist could say: “In the beginning the Word was created,” but what did he say? "In the beginning was the Word". Since it was, it means that it was not created, so that everything was created through Him, and without Him nothing was created. So, since the Word was “In the beginning... and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” then if you cannot understand what this means, put it off until you grow up. This is solid food, and you take milk and eat it to get stronger for taking solid food. 13. Well, and of course, my brothers, what is said further: Everything was created through Him, and without Him there is nothing 15 (John 1:3), - beware of understanding it in the sense that nothing is something. Often, due to a misunderstanding of the words “without Him there is nothing,” many believe that nothing is something. Sin, of course, was not created by the Word, and it is obvious that sin is nothing, and those who sin become nothing. And the idol was not created through the Word of God: its appearance seems to be human, but man himself was created through the Word, and the human appearance of the idol was not created through the Word; and it is written: “We know that an idol is nothing” (1 Cor. 8:4) 16. So this is not created by the Word; but everything that is in nature was created by Him, everything that is among creations, everything in general that is fixed in the sky, that shines from above, that flies under the sky, everything that moves in the universe, everything in general that is created; I will say more clearly, brothers, so that you will understand everything: from the angel to the worm. What is more beautiful than an angel among creation? What is baser than a worm among creatures? Through whom the angel was created, through him the worm was also created, but an angel is worthy of heaven, and a worm is worthy of earth. He who created it placed it. If he put a worm in the sky, you wouldn't approve; if he wanted angels to be born in smoldering flesh, you would not approve. And yet God did almost this and is not subject to condemnation. In fact, are not all people born of the flesh worms? And He makes angels out of worms. Since the Lord Himself 17 said: “I... am a worm, and not a man” (Ps. 21:7), then who will doubt what is written in the book of Job: “How much more is man corruptible, and the son of man a worm” (Job 25:6) 18? First it is said: “man is decay,” and then: the son of man is a worm; since a worm is born from corruption, then man is corruption, and the son of man is a worm. This is what He wanted to become for your sake, He Who was “the Word in the beginning, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Why did He do this for you? So that you drink milk if you cannot eat solid food. Therefore, brothers, understand what is said in general: “All things were created through Him, and without Him were nothing.” For all creation was created through Him, both greater and lesser; through Him the above and the below were created; the spiritual and the physical were created through Him. Not a single form, not a single composition, not a single combination of parts, not a single essence of any kind that can have weight, number and measure - nothing exists without a word; and everything comes from this Creator Word, to Whom the words are addressed: “You have ordered everything according to measure, number and weight” (Wis. 11:21) 19. 14. Therefore, do not let anyone deceive you when flies bother you. Otherwise, the devil laughed at some of them, and they were caught by flies. Bird catchers usually put flies in nets to lure hungry birds; so these too fall among the flies of the devil. For example, someone was annoyed with flies, a Manichaean caught him in annoyance, and when he said that he could no longer tolerate flies and hated them terribly, the Manichaean immediately asked: “Who created them?” And as he was annoyed with them and hated them, he did not dare to say: “God created them,” but was a Catholic Christian. Manichaeus immediately continued: “If God did not create them, then who created them?” He says: “I’m ready to believe that the devil created them.” And the Manichaean immediately said to him: “If the devil created the fly, as you just admitted, because you think correctly, then who created the bee, which is only a little larger than the fly?” He did not dare to say that God created the bee, but did not create the fly, because they are very close. From the bee, the Manichaean went to the grasshopper, from the grasshopper to the lizard, from the lizard to the bird, from the bird to small livestock, from it to the bull, from it to the elephant and, finally, to man - and convinced man that man was not created by God. So this unfortunate man, annoyed at the flies, became a fly and was caught by the devil. It is not for nothing that “Beelzebub” is said to be translated “Lord of the Flies”; it is written about them: “Dying flies spoil... the fragrant ointment” (Eccl. 10:1) 20. 15. Well, brothers, why did I say this? Close your ears to the wiles of the enemy, understand that God created everything and arranged it in stages. Why do we experience so much evil from the creation created by God? Because we have offended God. Do angels suffer the same things we do? We probably wouldn’t need to be afraid of this in our lives. For your punishment, blame it on your own guilt, not on the judge. For because of our pride, God allowed this smallest and most despicable creature to torment us: when a person becomes proud and begins to boast before God, and, being a mortal himself, begins to intimidate a mortal, and, being a man, does not recognize another person as his neighbor, then when he ascends, let him be at the mercy of lice. Why are you inflated by human pride? The person said something offensive to you, you pouted and got angry - well, fight lice before going to bed and understand who you are. So that you know, brothers, that all these annoying creatures were created to tame our pride, remember: God could have tamed the proud people of Pharaoh with bears, lions, and snakes, but he sent flies and frogs on them (Ex. 8:2-21) so that pride could be tamed by the meanest creatures. 16. So, brothers, everything, absolutely everything was created through Him, and without Him nothing was created. But how were all things created through Him? “What was created, in Him is life.” After all, you can read it this way: “What was created in Him is life.” This means that everything is life, if we read it that way. For what was not created in Him? He is the wisdom of God, and the psalm says: “You have created everything in wisdom” (Ps. 103:24) 21. Therefore, if Christ is the wisdom of God, and the psalm says: “You have created everything in wisdom,” then everything was created both through Him and in Him. Then, if all that is in Him, dearest brethren, and that which is in Him is life, then the earth is life, and the tree is life (we indeed call the tree life, but only meaning the tree of the Cross, from which we received life), and the stone is life. Such an understanding is unacceptable, lest the wicked Manichaean sect creep up on us again and say that a stone has life, a wall has a soul, a rope has a soul, wool, and clothing have a soul. So indeed they say in madness, and when they are suppressed and refuted, they quote as if words from Scripture: “Why is it said: “What was created in Him is life.” For if everything was created in Him, then everything is life.” But don’t let them mislead you, read this: “What was created,” stop here, then add: “in Him there is life.” What does it mean? The earth was created, but the created earth itself is not life; However, spiritual wisdom itself contains a certain idea according to which the earth was created, and this idea is life. 17. I will explain this to you, beloved, as best I can. The artist makes a casket. At first he had this casket in his mind; If he had not had a casket in his design, where would he have produced it? But the casket in design is not the same as the casket that is visible to the eye. In the design it is present invisibly, in execution it will be present visibly. Now that it has been fulfilled in practice, does it then cease to exist in concept? And the one that was made came into being, and the one that was planned remains; the first one can rot, and then it will be possible to make a new one in the image of the one in the plan. Now consider the casket as conceived and the casket made. A casket made is not life, a casket in design is life, because the soul of the artist is alive, in which everything exists even before it is born. In the same way, beloved brethren, since the wisdom of God, by which all things were created, contains everything in the form of plans before it makes everything, therefore, everything that happens according to this plan is not life in itself, but everything that is created is life in this plan. You see the earth - the earth is in the plan. You see the sky - there is a sky in the plan. You see the moon and stars - and they are also in the plan; but in appearance they are bodies, but in design they are life. Accept, if you can, this great knowledge; and if I am not great, the one who expounds or conveys it to you, then great is He from Whom it comes. For this was not said by me in my smallness - He to whom I turn is not small, so that He would give me what to say. Let everyone understand as best they can, as much as they can; and whoever cannot, let him feed his heart so that he can. What to feed it with? Feed with milk so that it rises to solid food. Let him not depart from Christ, born according to the flesh, until he comes to Christ, born of one Father, to the Word of God, which is with God, through whom all things were created: this is the life which in Him is the light of men. 18. And further it is said: “and life was the light of man” (John 1:4) 22 - and from this life people are enlightened. Animals are not enlightened because animals do not have a rational soul that could see wisdom. But man, created in the image of God, has a rational soul through which he can receive wisdom. So this life, through which everything was created, is the light of men. Therefore, a little further it is said: “There was the true Light, which enlightens every person who comes into the world” (John 1:9). John the Baptist was enlightened by this Light, and John the Evangelist himself was also enlightened by it. This Light was also filled with the one who said: “I am not Christ, but He who comes after me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to untie” (John 1:20,27) 23. The one who said: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” was enlightened by this Light. So this life is the light of men. 19. But perhaps foolish hearts cannot yet perceive this light, because sins burden them and do not allow them to see the light. Let them not think that there is no light, since they cannot see it: it is they themselves who have become darkness from their sins. “And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not receive it” (John 1:5) 24. This, brothers, is like a blind man in the sun: the sun is present, but he is absent from the sun - also everyone who is foolish, everyone who is lawless, every wicked person is blind in heart. Wisdom is present, but it is present to the blind man, for his eyes it is absent; not because she is absent, but because he is absent from it. What should such a thing do? Let him cleanses that with which one can see God. So, if he could not see because his eyes were clogged or irritated from dust, or pus, or smoke, then the doctor would tell him: “Cleanse your eye from everything harmful, and you will be able to see the light of your eyes.” Dust, suppuration, smoke are sins and iniquities; take it all away and you will see the Wisdom that is present, for God is this Wisdom, and it is said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). Synod: “may the mountains bring peace to people and the hills bring truth.” Synod: “The righteous shall live by faith.” Synod: “Eye has not seen it, ear has not heard it, and it has not entered the heart of man.” Synod: “When one says: “I am Pavlov,” and another: “I am Apollosov,” then are you not carnal?” Synod: “I said: you are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High.” Synod: “He spoke, and they were made, He commanded, and they were made.” Synod: “I lift up my eyes to the mountains, from where my help will come.” Augustine repeatedly attributes these words specifically to John the Baptist. Synod: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” All this reasoning and similar ones make sense primarily in relation to the Latin meaning of the word verbum, which, like the Russian “word” (but not like the Greek λογος), means primarily a single spoken word. Synod: “And God said: let it be... And it was so.” Synod: “Through Him all things came into being, and without Him nothing came into being that was made.” Synod: “We know that an idol is nothing in the world.” In the understanding of Augustine (and some of his predecessors), the following words of the psalm are prophetically pronounced by David on behalf of Christ. Tserkovnoslav: “How much more is man a pus, and the son of man a worm.” Synod: “You have ordered everything by measure, number and weight.” Synod: “Dead flies...” Synod: “You have done everything wisely.” Synod: "...the light of men." Synod: “He is the one who comes after me, but who stands in front of me. I am not worthy to untie the thong of His sandals.” Synod: “...darkness did not overcome him.” You might be interested in: