COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN
PROOEMIUM
COMMENTARY ON JOHN
1. Behold, my servant shall understand, and he shall be exalted and lifted up and shall be exceedingly high. Because the commendation of the author redounds to the work, and the commendation of the work to the author, therefore the proposed text, which is written in Isaiah fifty-two, has been taken up, in which blessed John the Evangelist is commended on three grounds, namely for the holiness of life, when it is said: Behold, my servant: for the clarity of understanding, when it is added: he shall understand: for the excellence of doctrine, when it is further added: and he shall be exalted and lifted up and shall be exceedingly high. For this is the order; for holiness of life merits the gift of understanding, and the gift of understanding disposes to the excellence of doctrine.
2. He is commended, therefore, for the holiness of life in this, that the Lord calls him his servant; for they do not merit to be called servants of God except those who serve him in holiness all their days. The Lord calls him his servant: by reason of obedience, because he faithfully obeyed him; whence that passage in Numbers twelve can rightly be understood of him: My servant Moses is most faithful in all my house. Rightly was blessed John most faithful in all the house of Christ: in testimony of which the Lord entrusted to him for safekeeping that most noble treasure, namely the virginity of the Mother.
By reason of office, which was imposed upon him by God, and to which he was preordained from eternity, according to that passage in Isaiah forty-nine: The Lord called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother he remembered my name: behold, predestination. And he made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he protected me, and he made me like a chosen arrow, in his quiver he hid me: behold, the commission of the office of preaching. And he said to me: You are my servant, Israel, for in you I shall be glorified: behold, the acceptance of servitude, because he did not undertake that office for his own glory, but for the divine.
By reason of benefit, which the Lord conferred upon him, because he was chosen and appointed and beloved by God and enriched with a special gift of grace, according to that passage in Isaiah forty-two: Behold my servant, I will uphold him; my elect one, my soul has been well pleased in him, I have given my spirit upon him. Rightly was the soul of the Lord well pleased in blessed John; for this is that disciple whom Jesus loved, John, last chapter. Thus therefore blessed John was a servant of Christ on account of obedience, office, and benefit.
3. On account of this holiness of life, he merited the gift of understanding, with which he was enriched in manifold ways. For he understood by the anointing of the Holy Spirit, by angelic revelation, and by the instruction of Christ. By the anointing of the Holy Spirit he understood useful things; by angelic revelation he understood hidden things; by the instruction of Christ, sublime things; and in these three, every appetite and desire of our understanding is consummated and perfected.
He understood, therefore, by the anointing of the Holy Spirit useful things, because that Spirit of truth is the spirit of salvation; concerning which understanding, Isaiah twenty-eight says: Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand the message? Those weaned from milk, those drawn away from the breasts. Those weaned and removed from the sweetness of present consolation merit to understand useful things, but others do not. Whence First Corinthians two: The natural man does not perceive the things that are of the Spirit of God, for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand the things that are spiritually examined. Blessed John indeed was weaned, because he abandoned his father and mother and even his bride, whom he had married, for the love of God.
He understood by angelic revelation hidden things, such as what things were to come; whence it rightly applies to him what is said in Daniel one concerning Daniel himself: The Lord gave Daniel understanding of all visions and dreams; and this indeed by the ministry of angelic revelation; whence in Daniel eight, one angel said to another: Gabriel, make this man understand the vision. But the angel did not do this authoritatively; in testimony of which, when John wished to adore the angel who was showing him those things, the angel forbade him, saying: See that you do not do it, for I am your fellow servant and of your brethren, Apocalypse nineteen; in which it is made manifest that he was not revealing as a lord, but as a fellow servant.
He also understood by the instruction of Christ sublime things. For although Christ taught all his disciples, nevertheless blessed John, whom he loved above the rest, he instructed above the rest and made to understand. Whence it can rightly be understood of him what the Lord said to Solomon in Third Kings three: I have given you a wise and understanding heart, to such a degree that none like you has been before you, nor shall any arise after you. For none before him nor after him followed who ascended to so great a knowledge of the Divinity.
4. Thus, therefore, blessed John understood useful things and hidden things and sublime things; and by reason of this threefold understanding he was raised to a threefold dignity of teaching. Therefore it is said he shall be exalted, namely to the apostolic chair; he shall be elevated to prophetic proclamation; and he shall be exceedingly sublime through evangelical doctrine. On account of which he composed three writings, namely the canonical Epistles, as an authoritative preacher; the Apocalypse, as an outstanding prophet; and the Gospel, as a most learned scribe.
First, therefore, he will be exalted to the apostolic chair. On account of which there rightly applies to him what is said in the Psalm: Let them exalt him in the church of the people, and in the chair of the elders let them praise him. The chair of the elders is the chair of the Apostles, in which blessed John did not sit as one idle, but rather instructed those present by words and those absent by epistles; Ecclesiasticus fifteen: She will be established in him, and he will not be bent; and she will hold him, and he will not be confounded; and she will exalt him among his neighbors.
He will be raised up to prophetic proclamation, according to that passage of Ezekiel eight: The Spirit lifted me up between heaven and earth and brought me to Jerusalem in a vision of God. By this elevation blessed John was raised up; whence Revelation twenty-one: He carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem descending from heaven. And this indeed he saw for the purpose of proclaiming; whence it was said to him in Revelation one: Write what you have seen and what is and what must come to pass after these things; because he flourished in a threefold kind of prophecy.
And he will be exceedingly sublime through evangelical doctrine, in which he surpasses all others. Therefore there can rightly be applied to him what is said in Genesis seven: The waters multiplied and lifted the ark on high above the earth. This ark is blessed John, in whom the seed of the divine word was preserved. Those waters that multiplied are the waters of saving wisdom, which were multiplied in blessed John, because, as Augustine says, "he drank the streams of the Gospel from the very fountain of the Lord's breast." These waters of wisdom raised him on high, above all mountains, because in the Gospel he spoke more loftily than all others. Whence Augustine says: "If he had thundered more loftily, the whole world could not have comprehended it." But because the sublimity of the teacher is manifested in the sublimity of his teaching, he rightly appears exceedingly sublime, if the sublimity of his Gospel is unfolded.
5. It must be understood, therefore, that a certain teaching is called sublime either because it treats of sublime things, or because it proceeds in a sublime manner, or because it leads to sublime things.
The Gospel of blessed John is sublime, because it treats of sublime things, because it treats of the incarnate Word according to both natures, which are exceedingly sublime, especially the divine. This is well expressed parabolically in Ezekiel seventeen: Thus says the Lord God: I will take from the pith of the lofty cedar, and I will plant it upon a high and eminent mountain, upon the lofty mountain of Israel. The pith of the lofty cedar is the hidden Divinity of the Word. This God the Father planted upon the lofty mountain of Israel, because he united it to human nature in Christ, who is the stone cut from the mountain without hands. From this pith of the lofty cedar is the Gospel of blessed John: whence in the same chapter it is said: A great eagle with great wings, with long extension of limbs, full of feathers and variety, came to Lebanon and took the pith of the cedar. He plucked off the top of its branches and carried it into the land of Canaan. A great eagle, through the breadth of charity; with great wings, through the height of contemplation; with long extension of limbs, through the length of expectation; full of feathers and variety, through the multitude of virtues: came to Lebanon, that is, to Christ, the mountain of mountains; took the pith of the cedar, that is, the hidden Divinity of the Word; and plucked off the top of the branches, because he described the excellence of the divine works, such as the most noble miracles and the most lofty teachings, which the other Evangelists left untouched. If therefore Lebanon is a high mountain in the world, and the cedar a tall tree on Lebanon, and the top of the branches the highest point on the cedar; it certainly follows that he who plucked off the top of the branches of the cedar treated of sublime things.
6. Not only does it treat of sublime things, but it also proceeds sublimely. The sublime mode of proceeding is the mode of certitude. Those sciences are called more sublime which are more certain. This sublime mode of proceeding is described in Ezekiel one in the figure of the living creatures, by which the Evangelists are understood: I heard, he says, the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the sound of the sublime God. The sound of the sublime God is certitudinal, not variable, because God is not as a man, that he should lie . Therefore the Lord said of himself in John three: We speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen. In this certitudinal mode blessed John spoke: whence in John nineteen: He who saw it has borne witness, and his testimony is true: and he knows that he speaks the truth. Whence he himself says in his first canonical epistle, in the first chapter at the beginning: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life, we testify and announce to you.
7. Not only does it proceed sublimely, but it also leads to sublime things. Sublime things are eternal goods; for temporal goods are the lowest and momentary; whence Second Corinthians four: That which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation works in us above measure an eternal weight of glory in sublimity. To this sublime weight of glory the doctrine of the Gospel according to John leads. Whence John twenty: These things are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name: that is, that eternal and sublime life, which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man.
Thus therefore the doctrine of this Gospel is sublime, and for this reason not undeservedly is its author said to be sublime, and not only sublime, but also exceedingly sublime, in the superlative degree. For if divine Scripture surpasses all other writings, and the Gospel surpasses all parts of divine Scripture, and the Gospel of John surpasses all the Gospels: it follows that this book singularly surpasses all other books.
8. From what has been said, those things which are customarily inquired into at the beginning of any book are clear, namely the efficient cause, John the Evangelist, holy, understanding, exalted and elevated and made more sublime than the rest: the material cause, the incarnate Word, especially as regards those things which pertain to the Divinity: the formal cause or mode of proceeding, although it is by way of narration, is nevertheless one of certitude: the formal cause, which is the division of the book, will be made clear below, because it proceeds in a highly ordered manner: the proximate final cause is faith, while the ultimate is eternal life, which is the most desired end.
Questions.
9. But with regard to these three things in which this doctrine has been commended, namely in utility, certitude, and sublimity, three things are inquired into.
Question I. It is therefore asked: what was the necessity of writing this Gospel? And it seems that there was none:
1. Because Gregory, commenting on Ezekiel, says on the text: Four faces to one: "If you ask what John thinks, it is what Luke, Mark, and Matthew think." Therefore according to this, John did nothing except repeat what the other Evangelists had said: therefore if he had not written, nothing would be lacking.