Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He proceeds to commend faith and love toward God and Christ incarnate, and assigns six effects and fruits of it. The first is divine birth, verse 1. The second, victory over the world, verse 4. The third is the testimony of God, verses 7 and 10. The fourth is eternal life, verse 11. The fifth is the confidence of obtaining whatever we ask of God, provided that one does not pray for one guilty of a sin unto death, verse 14. The sixth is impeccability, that is, preservation from sin and from the devil, verse 18. This chapter is therefore as it were the conclusion of the Epistle, in which he repeats, impresses, and confirms what has already been said, as orators are wont to do in the epilogue. Most of the sentences of this chapter have therefore already been explained in the preceding parts. Wherefore, lest I repeat what has been said, I shall refer back to that place.
Vulgate Text: 1 John 5:1-21
1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. And every one that loveth him who begot, loveth him also who is born of him. 2 In this we know that we love the children of God: when we love God, and keep his commandments. 3 For this is the charity of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not heavy. 4 For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world: and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ: not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit which testifieth, that Christ is the truth. 7 And there are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. 8 And there are three that give testimony on earth: the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three are one. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater: for this is the testimony of God, which is greater, because he hath testified of his Son. 10 He that believeth in the Son of God, hath the testimony of God in himself. He that believeth not the Son, maketh him a liar: because he believeth not in the testimony which God hath testified of his Son. 11 And this is the testimony, that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son, hath life. He that hath not the Son, hath not life. 13 These things I write to you, that you may know that you have eternal life, you who believe in the name of the Son of God. 14 And this is the confidence which we have towards him: That, whatsoever we shall ask according to his will, he heareth us. 15 And we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask: we know that we have the petitions which we request of him. 16 He that knoweth his brother to sin a sin which is not to death, let him ask, and life shall be given to him, who sinneth not to death. There is a sin unto death: for that I say not that any man ask. 17 All iniquity is sin. And there is a sin unto death. 18 We know that whosoever is born of God, sinneth not: but the generation of God preserveth him, and the wicked one toucheth him not. 19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world is seated in wickedness. 20 And we know that the Son of God is come: and he hath given us understanding that we may know the true God, and may be in his true Son. This is the true God and life eternal. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.
Verse 1: Whosoever Believes Is Born of God
1. Whosoever believeth (with a living faith which extends itself to charity and works through love, as I said in ch. IV, 16), THAT JESUS IS THE CHRIST (that is, the Messiah, redeemer and savior of the world), IS BORN OF GOD — by a spiritual and divine birth, which is brought about by faith, charity and grace, by which one becomes not only a friend, but also a son and heir of God, and a partaker of the divine nature, II Peter I, 5.
AND EVERYONE WHO LOVES HIM WHO BEGOT, LOVES ALSO HIM WHO IS BORN OF HIM. — "Born," first, properly born of God the Father is Christ the Son of God. Then, born of God is every faithful one, adopted by God through the grace of Christ. For "born" is said analogically of Christ and of us, but of us with reference to Christ. This therefore is the reasoning of St. John, by which He proves that neighbors are to be loved, which he began to prove at the end of the previous chapter, and here continues, that is to say: Whoever loves God the Father, who begot, equally loves God the Son begotten of the Father; but whoever loves God the Son, loves also the rest of the sons of God, as it were His brothers and members: therefore whoever loves God the Father, loves also all the sons of God born of Him. These are our faithful neighbors; therefore they are to be loved with the same charity by which we love God both the Father and the Son. So St. Augustine, Bede, the Gloss, Hugh, and others here, and St. Hilary, bk. VI On the Trinity. This exposition, says St. Augustine, is favored by the fact that he says "born" in the singular, as if understanding the only-begotten of God through the generation of the Father; but soon in v. 2 he says "born" in the plural, as if understanding the just born of God through adoption and regeneration.
Again, because in the preceding sentence he commended faith in Christ, whence fittingly he soon here adds and commends love towards Christ: for it does not suffice to believe in Christ by faith, unless we also love Him with love.
Secondly, "born" can be taken not as Christ, but only as any Christian and just person, of whom he had said a little before: "Whosoever believes, etc., is born of God," so that this is a sentence distinct from the preceding, and signifies only that the faithful, just as they believe in Christ, so they ought to love one another as brothers, begotten and born of the same God the Father. For if they love God who begot the faithful, they ought equally to love those who are begotten of Him, both because the Father loves them, and because they are most closely joined with us, being brothers and sons of the same Father. So Didymus, Cajetan, and Catharinus. The first sense, as it is more connected, so also is more genuine and forceful. For everywhere John breathes Christ as the center, the bond, and the glue of charity between us and God. Christ for He has reconciled us to the Father, whence He is the mediator, the cause why we love God, and why in turn God loves us. For all the faithful are the body of Christ and members of His member, says Paul, I Corinth. XII, 26: "When therefore, says St. Augustine, you love Christ's members, you love Christ; when you love Christ, you love the Son of God; when you love the Son of God, you love also the Father: love therefore cannot be separated. Choose for yourself what you will love, the rest will follow you; you say, I love God alone, God the Father; you lie, if you love: you do not love God the Father alone; but if you love the Father, you love also the Son."
Verse 2: We Love the Children of God
2. IN THIS WE KNOW THAT WE LOVE THE CHILDREN (τέκνα) OF GOD, WHEN (ὅταν, that is because, inasmuch as) WE LOVE GOD, AND DO HIS COMMANDMENTS. "We know," that is, we conclude, we make known, we show, we convince, we demonstrate. So in ch. IV, v. 13, he says: "In this we know," that is, by a sure sign and argument we conclude: "That we abide in Him, and He in us; because He hath given us of His Spirit," that is to say: From the Spirit of God we conclude and prove that God remains in us, and we in God. Similarly St. John uses τὸ cognoscimus, ch. III, vv. 16 and 19; ch. IV, vv. 2 and 6. "We know" therefore, that is, we prove that we love Christians, as those born of God, that is to say: I said: "Everyone who loves God who begot, loves also him who is born of Him," namely all the faithful and Christians. We "know" the same thing, that is, we conclude and prove by this argument, that "we love God." For this is St. John's syllogism and this demonstration. All sons of God are faithful and Christians; whoever loves God, loves also the sons of God: therefore he who loves God, loves the faithful and Christians as brothers and members of Christ, begotten by the same God the Father. For as from the love of neighbors we infer and conclude the love of God, so in turn and reciprocally from the love of God we infer and conclude the love of neighbors. Again: Whoever keeps the commandments of God, keeps also the love of neighbors: for this is one of the commandments; but whoever keeps the commandment of love, this man loves neighbors: therefore whoever keeps the commandments of God, this man loves neighbors.
Furthermore, St. John here does not name all neighbors, but only those born of God, namely the faithful and Christians, because he is anxious to enkindle love among them, so that in the faith and Christian life they may defend, encourage, foster, and promote one another against the Gentiles. The same Christ commended to the faithful, and as it were left as a testament when about to depart to the Father, John ch. xv, 12, and St. Paul ch. brother, as in Ephes. IV, 2 ff.; Galat. VI, 2; Philip. II, 1 ff.
Verse 3: His Commandments Are Not Heavy
3. FOR THIS IS THE CHARITY OF GOD, THAT WE KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, — that is to say: Charity consists in the observance of God's commandments. For charity is the love and friendship of God; and this impels lovers to do the will, namely the commandments, of God supremely loved by them, according to that of Wisd. VI, 19: "Love is the keeping of His laws." Thus he says in Eccl. XII, 13: "Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is all man," that is to say: Every good of man, every duty, all happiness, end and perfection consists in fearing God. Or, this is what every man, however great, ought to look to in all his words and deeds, and in his whole life, namely that he everywhere set the fear of God before his eyes, and keep His precepts; whence the Chaldee renders, such ought to be the way of man; St. Jerome, for this man was created; and Solonius: Because, he says, he who lives otherwise is not a man, but a beast, because he does not live rationally, which is the nature of man, but bestially, if gluttonously, like a pig; if cunningly, like a fox; if proudly, like a lion, etc. The same things you may apply throughout to charity.
AND HIS COMMANDMENTS ARE NOT HEAVY. — Much less impossible, as the heretics blaspheme. He alludes to that of Christ: "For My yoke is sweet and My burden light," Matth. XI, 30.
The reason is: First, because Christ liberated Christians from the heavy and manifold burden of so many ceremonial and judicial commandments of the old law, and imposed on them only the moral, that is the Decalogue, namely the ten precepts of the law of nature, with a few added concerning faith, baptism and the other Sacraments. For R. Moses, in book III of the Moreh Hannebuchim, ch. LVI and LVII, counts 218 affirmative precepts of the old law and 365 negative: from all these Christ has liberated us.
Second, because to charity, and to one who loves God, nothing is heavy: "For how is it heavy, when it is the commandment of love? For either someone does not love, and it is heavy; or he loves, and it cannot be heavy," says St. Augustine, On Nature and Grace, ch. LXIX; and the Wise Man, Proverbs IV, 11: "I will show thee the way of wisdom, and lead thee through the paths of equity, which when thou shalt enter, thy steps shall not be straitened, and running thou shalt not meet a stumbling block."
Third, because Christ gives grace as wings, by which we may fulfill the precepts, indeed by which we may even fly above them, according to: "I have run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou didst enlarge my heart," Psalm CXVIII; whence St. Augustine, in the book On the Perfection of Justice, before the middle, says, "that what is done by loving, not by fearing, is not heavy. For perfect charity casts out fear, and makes the burden of the precept light, not only not pressing with the weight of burdens, but even raising up in the place of feathers. Therefore let the soul which feels those things heavy, pray with the groaning of the will, that it may obtain the gift of facility." Whence St. Bonaventure says that the commandments are heavy to fallen and corrupt nature, but easy to sound and whole nature. Grace however heals and restores nature, just as sin wounds and as it were mutilates it, and therefore causes the commandment to be to it as a "talent of lead," Zachar. V, 7, and as a "heavy burden weighed down," Psalm XXXVII, 5. So Didymus and Oecumenius.
Fourth, because, although some things are in themselves heavy, like mortifying all desires, undergoing martyrdom, suffering all adversities, yet these become light, if the examples of Christ and the Saints are considered, and His promise of heavenly glory, according to that of Paul: "The sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come, that shall be revealed in us," Romans VIII; and: "That which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation, worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen," II Corinth. ch. IV, v. 17. Hence the Spouse says in Cant. ch. I, v. 13: "A bundle," not a load, "of myrrh is my beloved to me," where see St. Bernard, whose words I have recited above.
Hear St. Augustine, serm. 18 On the Saints: "If daily, he says, we had to endure torments, if we had to tolerate Gehenna itself for a little time, in order to be worthy to see Christ coming in glory, and to be associated with the number of His Saints, would it not be worthy to suffer everything that is sad, in order to be made partakers of so great a good and so great a glory?"
Verse 4: Whatever Is Born of God Overcomes the World
4. FOR WHATSOEVER IS BORN OF GOD, OVERCOMETH THE WORLD. — He proves what he said: "His commandments are not heavy," by this reason, that the faithful, reborn by faith and charity, and armed by God, conquer the world, that is, both the desires and the terrors of the world, which alone resist charity, and make the observance of the commandments difficult; with these therefore removed, the commandments remain easy, not heavy: for to charity only desire is opposed: take this away, and charity remains easy and unhindered. "The testimony of heavenly birth is the victory over temptation," says St. Bernard, serm. I on the Octave of Easter.
Note: "Everything that is born," that is, everyone who is reborn of God, "conquers the world"; yet he says "every thing," not "everyone," first, to signify that this victory comes to the faithful one not from himself, but from faith, charity, and the grace of God; whence in explanation he adds: "And this is the victory which conquers the world, our faith." The sense therefore is, that is to say: Faith, charity, and grace, which are born and flow from God, conquer the world, and accordingly the faithful, born and reborn through them, equally conquer the world; whence Oecumenius by "everything that is born of God" understands fraternal charity: for this conquers the world.
Secondly, the τὸ omne has emphasis, and signifies the totality of all nations. For he alludes to the animals of every kind, clean and unclean, which were in Noah's ark, and which Peter saw in a vision in the linen sheet of the Church, Acts X, 12. By which was signified every kind of men from every nation, of every state and condition, to be admitted to the Church through the new birth in baptism. With the same cause and emphasis Christ says: "Every thing that (for everyone whom) the Father gives Me, shall come to Me"; whence in explanation He adds: "And him that cometh to Me, I will not cast out," John ch. VI, v. 37; and ch. XVII, v. 2: "As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give every thing, that is everyone, whom Thou hast given Him, eternal life."
Thirdly, Thomas the Englishman: He says "every thing" rather than "everyone," to signify that in spiritual generation there is no distinction of sex. For in Christ "there is neither male nor female," Galat. ch. III, v. 28.
Hence St. Cyprian, St. Leo, and others say that the believer is greater than the world, and dwelling in heaven, looks down on this point of a world. I cited their words at ch. IV, v. 4, on the passage: "You have overcome him, because greater is He that is in you," Excellently St. Augustine, bk. II On the Creed to Catechumens, ch. II: "A wondrous spectacle is ours, he says, plainly wondrous, in which God assists, faith obtains strength, innocence fights, holiness conquers, and obtains such a reward, that both he who has conquered receives it, and He who has bestowed it loses nothing."
AND THIS IS THE VICTORY WHICH OVERCOMETH THE WORLD, OUR FAITH. — "Victory," that is, the conqueror and victor: for properly victory does not conquer, but the battle of the conqueror that produces victory. "Victory" therefore, that is, the cause of victory, the arms by which victory is gained, is faith. This therefore is the victorious faith, not naked and idle, but clothed with charity and good works, namely industrious, contending and fighting bravely, according to: "The Saints by faith conquered kingdoms, wrought justice, obtained promises," etc. Hebrews XI, and I Peter V: "Your adversary, the devil, he says, as a roaring lion goeth about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist ye, strong in faith." See what is said in both places; for by faith we believe eternal life to be the highest good, for which all evils must be bravely endured, and we must contend against all the temptations of the world even to death and martyrdom. Whence through this faith and hope, both of divine help and the grace of Christ, and of the reward and prize of eternal glory, the Martyrs eagerly and joyfully conquered all kinds of torments, according to: "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of the testimony of their own," Apocal. ch. XII, v. 11. And that of Paul, Ephes. VI, 16: "In all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one." Hear Tertullian to Scapula: "When Arius Antoninus was persecuting all the faithful of that city in Asia urgently, the Christians presented themselves in a body before his tribunal"; and Nicephorus: "In the time of Diocletian (he says), when the festal day of Christ's nativity was at hand, twenty thousand Christians shut up in a temple by the tyrant preferred to be burned by fire than to deflect ever so little from the firmness of the Christian faith." Wherefore truly St. Bernard, serm. 6 on the Vigil of the Nativity: "Faith, he says, is a certain true exemplar of eternity, embracing past and present and future together in a kind of most vast bosom, so that nothing passes by it, nothing perishes, nothing is in advance of it."
For "overcometh" the Greek has νενίκηκε, that is "hath overcome," in the aorist, under which he understands all time, that is to say: It hath overcome, overcometh, and shall overcome. For this reason Rupert wrote a work On the Victory of the Word of God. St. Augustine, in the book On the Usefulness of Believing, ch. XVII, teaches that the faith of Christ subdued the whole world to itself by the holiness, chastity, patience, constancy, etc., of the Apostles, Virgins, and Martyrs, by whom the nations of the whole world were converted to Christ. Oecumenius: "Faith, he says, has conquered and cast out every perfidy, so that neither Jew nor heretic has any force against it." Wherefore St. Augustine, serm. 1 On the Words of the Apostle: "There are no greater riches, he says, no treasures, no honors, no greater substance of this world, than the Catholic Faith, which saves sinful men, illuminates the blind, cures the sick, baptizes catechumens, justifies the faithful, restores the penitent, augments the just, crowns the martyrs." Finally St. Bernard, serm. 76 on the Canticle: "Faith, he says, reaches the inaccessible, discovers the unknown, comprehends the immeasurable, attains the latest things, and finally encloses eternity itself in a certain manner in its most vast bosom. I would confidently say, the eternal and blessed Trinity, which I do not understand, I believe and hold by faith, what I do not grasp by sound mind."
Furthermore, living faith obtains everything from God, and conquers the Almighty, and therefore becomes almighty, so that it works any miracles whatever, according to: "All things are possible to him that believeth," Mark IX, 23. This is the faith of miracles. Faith therefore conquers the world, because it conquers God the Lord of the world.
Verse 5: He Who Believes That Jesus Is the Son of God
5. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth THAT JESUS IS THE SON OF GOD? — For by believing he hopes, by hoping he calls upon, by calling upon he loves Christ; and so, strengthened by the grace of Christ, he hates and despises the world, and by despising it conquers, according to that of Paul: "I can do all things in Him who strengtheneth me," Philip. IV, v. 13. Under faith therefore he embraces charity, obedience, fortitude, and the other virtues sanctioned and given by Christ, by which the world is conquered. For he who believes in Christ must follow Christ's commandments, and obey Him, not the world, indeed must despise the world; for Christ enjoined and sanctioned this for His followers, John XV, 18 and 19.
Hear St. Bernard, serm. 1 On the three witnesses in heaven and on earth: "What then does he mean: Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God, when even the world itself now believes this? Do not the very demons also believe and tremble? But I say: Do you think he reckons Jesus the Son of God, whoever that man is, who is neither terrified by His threats, nor drawn by His promises, nor obeys His precepts, nor acquiesces in His counsels? Is not he, even if he confesses God, yet by his deeds denies Him? Furthermore, faith without works is dead in itself, nor indeed can it seem strange, if it in no way conquers, which does not even live."
St. John proves the thesis from the hypothesis, the genus from the species, indeed the species from the individual: he proves, I say, that faith is the victory of the faithful, from the fact that the faith of Christ is the victory of the world; and at the same time he strikes at Cerinthus, Ebion, and other heretics of that age, who denied the divinity of Christ. Hence Peter confessing it, and saying: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God," deserved to hear from Him: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," Matth. XVI; and Paul: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? I am sure that neither death, nor life," etc. Rom. ch. VIII. "Whence was he sure, except from the firmness of faith?" says St. Jerome on ch. II of Galatians.
Verse 6: He Who Came by Water and Blood
6. THIS IS HE THAT CAME BY WATER AND BLOOD, JESUS CHRIST. — that is to say: This is the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior and Redeemer of the world, whom the Prophets foretold would come, that He might redeem the world by His blood, and cleanse it by the water of baptism, as is clear from Ezech. XXXVI, 17, and Zachar. XII, 13; and the same was prefigured by all the sacrifices of the old law, in which the blood of victims was poured out, to represent that sins would be expiated by the blood of Christ to be poured out on the cross. Since therefore Christ, fulfilling these oracles of the Prophets, has actually come, and has redeemed us by His blood, and has sanctioned the baptism of water when He was baptized by John in the Jordan, and has bestowed on it the power of sanctifying: from this gather with certainty that He is the true Messiah and Christ the mediator foretold by the Prophets, and accordingly that by faith in Him we conquer the world. John proves that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, namely that Jesus is true man and true God, first from the fact that He is the one "who came," in Greek ὁ ἐλθὼν, that is, that one, namely the Messiah, the one coming antonomastically, whom the Prophets promised would come, whom Scripture, Isaiah IX, 6 and elsewhere, signifies will be God and the Son of God. Whence "coming," or "about to come," is the name of the Messiah. For thus the Jews called Him from the prophecies of the Prophets, as appears in Apocal. I, 4; John I, 15; Matth. XI, 3; Psalm CXVII, 26; Aggaeus II, 8; Malach. III, 1 and 2, and elsewhere.
Again he proves the same thing from the water and blood of which Christ's body consisted, and which He poured out for us. For these things, first, signified that Christ was a true man, not a phantasm, as Simon and Manes wished: for the human body is composed and consists of water and blood, namely of the four humors; for under water or phlegm understand melancholy, or black bile: for water or phlegm, if it thickens, becomes mud, or melancholy; under blood understand choler, or yellow bile: for blood, if it grows hot, becomes bile. These four humors contain the four elements, of which a man's body is compounded: for phlegm contains water, melancholy earth, blood air, choler fire. Therefore by water and blood St. John signifies that Christ's body consisted of four humors and four elements, and accordingly was truly and properly a human body.
Secondly, water and blood proved Christ to be God, both because Christ's blood was the just price of our redemption, equally satisfying God for the offense of our sins: therefore it was necessary that it be the blood of a man-God, that is, of a man hypostatically united to God: for the blood of a mere man could not be a just and adequate price for the offenses of God; and because by the power of His blood Christ, instituting baptism, gave it the divine power to expiate all sins of all men. Therefore it was necessary that He be God: for Christ did this by Himself and authoritatively, not as a minister depending on another. But to institute by oneself a Sacrament that remits and expiates sins is a work of divine power.
He alludes first to the water and blood of victims, by which Moses sanctioned the old Testament, Exod. ch. XXIV, 8, by which he signified that Christ would sanction the new Testament with His blood and water. Hear Paul, Hebr. IX, 19: "For when every commandment of the law had been read by Moses to all the people, taking the blood of calves and goats with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, he sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying: This is the blood of the Testament which God hath enjoined unto you." See what is said there.
He alludes, secondly, to the water and blood which flowed miraculously from the side of Christ dead on the cross: for a dead body, in place of the blood and water of a living one, naturally yields corruption; whence St. John alone of the Evangelists narrates this, ch. XIX, 34. For by this water and blood of Christ was represented that the faithful, by the power of Christ's blood and death, must be washed from all sins through the water of baptism. And this is what the Spouse, that is the Church, signifies, Cant. V, 10: "My beloved, she says, is white and ruddy"; for water is white, blood is ruddy. So Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 13; St. Augustine, bk. II On Catechizing the Uninstructed, ch. VI; St. Leo, epist. 45; Jerome, epist. 83; Damascene, bk. IV On the Faith, ch. X; Suarez, III part., Quaest. LIII, disp. XLI, sect. 1, and others. Hence our Salmeron here is of the opinion that Christ everywhere mixed water with blood, namely of tears in circumcision, in the bloody sweat of the agony, in the flagellation, on the cross before death; and therefore commanded that water be mixed with wine in the chalice of the Eucharist to be converted into blood. And Hugh says that Christ came through blood, when He was circumcised, so that by observing the law He might signify that He wished to redeem the Jews, but through water the Gentiles, because in water He instituted baptism chiefly for the Gentiles.
Furthermore St. John distinguishes the baptism of Christ from the baptism of John the Baptist, in that the latter was only in water, and therefore ineffective for expiating sins; whereas Christ's was in water and blood, and therefore efficacious for washing them away. Again, he criticizes the Ebionites, who supposed that God was placated by water alone, and therefore washed themselves daily in water, and in the chalice of the Eucharist offered not wine but pure water, because they denied that we are redeemed by the blood of Christ, as Irenaeus testifies, book V, chapter I.
Finally Tertullian, in his book On Baptism, chapter xvi, says that Christ came through water when He was baptized by John, and through blood when He suffered, that, as he says, "He might be dipped in water and glorified in blood" through His Passion and His victory over death. "Accordingly, in order to make us called by water and chosen by blood, He emitted these two baptisms from the wound of His pierced side; that those who believed in His blood might be washed in water, and those who had washed in baptism with water might also drink His blood in the Eucharist."
Symbolically, by water and blood, St. Jerome (epistle 88), St. Augustine (book II On the Creed, chapter vi), Cyril (Catechesis 13), and others understand a twofold baptism, namely of the river and of blood. Others suppose that the twofold manner in which Christ was condemned is here represented: by the Jews crying out "His blood be upon us," etc., and by Pilate washing his hands with water, Matthew xxvii, 24 and 25.
Anagogically Cyril, Catechesis 13, takes water for baptism and blood for the judgment; for by that judgment the reprobate will be condemned to blood, that is, to gehenna and eternal death.
Allegorically St. Bernard, Sermon 1 on the Octave of Easter, says: "Moses came through water, because he was rescued from water, and therefore called Moses, that is, 'drawn out,' and led the Hebrew people unharmed through the waters of the Red Sea into the Promised Land. But Jesus, the lawgiver of the new law, came through water and blood, because by His blood He will lead us into the holy places, namely into heaven, Hebrews ix, 12: 'Thus today also He comes to us through water and blood, that water and blood may be the testimony of Him and of His victorious faith.'"
Tropologically St. Bernard, in the same place, takes water and blood for a twofold baptism and a twofold martyrdom — the former in tears of compunction, the latter in the pursuit of mortification: "Now then, since we have said that baptism is signified by water and martyrdom by blood, remember that there is both a unique baptism and a daily one, and likewise of martyrdom. For there is also a kind of martyrdom and a certain shedding of blood in the daily affliction of the body. And there is a kind of baptism in the compunction of the heart and in the constancy of tears. For it is necessary that the weak and small of heart, who cannot lay down their lives once for all for Christ, should at least pour out their blood in a milder but more enduring martyrdom. Thus too, since the Sacrament of Baptism may not be repeated, those who often offend in many things must supplement it by frequent ablution. Whence the Prophet also says: 'I will wash my bed every night, and water my couch with my tears,' Psalm vi, 7."
(Some Greek manuscripts add καὶ πνεύματος, that is, and the Spirit). Not in water only, but in water and blood, — the same add, and also in the Spirit.
AND IT IS THE SPIRIT THAT TESTIFIES THAT CHRIST IS THE TRUTH. — The Greek has ὅτι τὸ πνεῦμά ἐστιν ἡ ἀλήθεια, that is, because the Spirit is the truth. The Syriac, Vatablus, Clarius, and Cajetan also read thus, as if to say: It is the Spirit who recently at Pentecost testified that Christ is the Son of God. He must therefore be believed, because this Spirit is the Spirit of truth, indeed truth itself. But the genuine reading is, "because Christ is the truth"; for the discourse here is about Christ, not about the Spirit, and truth is properly the name of Christ, not of the Holy Spirit.
To the obscure and as it were dead testimony of water and blood St. John adds the clear and living testimony of the Holy Spirit: for He, both in the life of Christ, working miracles through Him to bear this witness, and after Christ's death and resurrection, sent by Him at Pentecost into the Apostles, testified through their mouths and everywhere preached that Christ was the truth, that is, true God. For Christ as God is the Word, and therefore the truth and wisdom of the Father; as man, He was the true ambassador and interpreter of God, who unveiled the shadows of the old law and made manifest the clear doctrine and truth concerning God, according to that saying: "I am the way, the truth, and the life," John xiv, 6; and that of chapter xviii, 37: "For this was I born, and for this came I into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth."
Hence the Aaronic High Priest, bearing the type of Christ, the true and truthful Pontiff, wore in the Rational of the breastplate the woven insignia Urim and Thummim, that is, Doctrine and Truth, Exodus chapter xxviii, verse 30.
Others take 'spirit' to mean the internal illumination of the Holy Spirit by which He impels us to the faith and love of Christ, according to that of chapter ii, verse 27: "His anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true,"
Verse 7: The Three Heavenly Witnesses
7. FOR THERE ARE THREE. — St. John here more fully explains and confirms the testimony of water, blood, and Spirit concerning Christ that has just been adduced; whence the 'because' partly proves what he said in verse 5, namely that Jesus is the Son of God, and partly proves what he said in verse 6, namely that the Spirit testifies that Christ is true God. For he confirms this here from the fact that the Holy Spirit is one of the three witnesses who in heaven bear witness to Christ.
THERE ARE THREE WHO GIVE TESTIMONY IN HEAVEN (FROM HEAVEN): THE FATHER, THE WORD, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, AND THESE THREE ARE ONE. — St. Jerome notes, in his Preface to the Canonical Epistles, that these words were erased from some Greek manuscripts by unbelievers, namely the Arians (whence even the modern Arians in Transylvania reject the entire Epistle of St. John on account of these words). On this account the Syriac does not read them, nor Clement of Alexandria, Bede, Œcumenius, and a number of others whom Francis Lucas cites in his Annotation on this passage, Annotation 612. Yet now the Latin Bibles and the more correct Greek copies constantly read them, as do many of the ancients — St. Athanasius, Augustine, Jerome, Cyprian, the Lateran Council in which the Greeks took part, and others whom Bellarmine cites (book I On Christ, chapter vi), Hesselius, and others here. It is therefore certain that these words are to be read and that they are Canonical Scripture, and consequently that the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, together with the divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit, is rightly confirmed from them against the Arians and Macedonians.
The sense, therefore, is as if to say: All three Persons of the Most Holy Trinity in heaven and from heaven bear witness, both to the angels and especially to men (for this is what St. John chiefly intends here), concerning Christ — namely, that He Himself is the true Messiah and Son of God. The Father, indeed, did so when at the baptism and transfiguration of Christ, Matthew iii, 17, and chapter xvii, verse 5, He publicly proclaimed: "This is My beloved Son, hear ye Him." Again, when over Christ, who was praying that He be glorified, He thundered from heaven: "And I have glorified, and I will glorify again," John xii, 28.
Likewise the Holy Spirit also, when He descended upon Christ in the form of a dove, and poured Himself out upon the Apostles and the other Christians on the day of Pentecost, and that according to Christ's prediction, promise, and mission: whence the same Holy Spirit, through the mouths of the Apostles, proclaimed scarcely anything else than Christ. The Son too most often spoke, taught, proved by miracles, and convinced men that He was the Messiah and the Son of God, as is plain from the whole Gospel of St. John. Likewise too Christ's three witnesses on earth are the Spirit, the water, and the blood, as follows. The witnesses of heaven and earth therefore agree mutually with each other, and consequently complete faith is to be given them as to divine witnesses greater than every exception; and because heaven and earth — the whole world, I say — seem to conspire in this testimony to Christ. St. John alludes to that passage of his own Gospel, chapter viii, verse 18: "I am the one who bears witness of Myself, and the Father who sent Me also bears witness of Me"; and chapter xvi, verse 14, of the Holy Spirit: "He shall glorify Me, because He shall receive of Mine, and shall declare it to you." Lastly, he produces three witnesses, because it is written: "In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall stand," Deuteronomy xix, 15.
AND THESE THREE ARE ONE. — Just as in divine nature and essence, so likewise in understanding, voice, utterance, and testimony concerning Christ; for all these things are essentially one and the same in the Most Holy Trinity. The Complutensian and Royal copies have καὶ οἱ τρεῖς εἰς τὸ ἕν εἰσιν, that is, and these three are unto one. But the Latins and other Greeks read "and these three are one"; for the οἰκονομία (economy) of the Most Holy Trinity is signified — namely, that the three Persons have one and the same indivisible deity. Nor does the variant reading of the Complutensian signify anything different. For in "are one" — that is, 'unto one,' namely into one essence — they come together and coincide. So in Gen. ii, 24, of Adam and Eve as spouses it is said: "They shall be two in one flesh," that is, the two shall be "one flesh," as Christ explains in Matthew xix, 6, that is, husband and wife shall be as it were one civil and political person. So in Jeremiah xxx, 22: "You shall be unto Me for a people," that is, you shall be My people; and Psalm xxx, 3: "Be unto Me for a God protector," that is, be My protecting God; and often elsewhere.
Euthymius, in the Panoplia, part I, title vii, page 143, reads 'three things' instead of 'three,' and from this shows that the three Persons in God are truly three personally, but one essentially.
Serapis said the same many ages before St. John, when, to the king of Egypt named Thulis who asked, "Who could be more fortunate than he?" he answered:
In the beginning, God, and then the Word, and the Spirit with them.
And it is added: "These are coeval, and tend unto one" — of which I have spoken above.
Verse 8: The Three Earthly Witnesses
8. AND THERE ARE THREE THAT GIVE TESTIMONY ON EARTH: THE SPIRIT, AND THE WATER, AND THE BLOOD. — He should have said "three things"; for in Greek πνεῦμα, ὕδωρ, and αἷμα — that is, spirit, water, and blood — are of neuter gender. Yet he says "three," both to show that these three earthly witnesses conspire, indeed represent the three heavenly witnesses just named, says St. Augustine — of which more shortly; and because by personification he attributes to these three the persona of witnesses: for a witness on earth among men ought to be animate, and so a man, and therefore of masculine, not neuter, gender. For he who bears witness must speak, and utter his testimony with the mouth, which belongs only to a human being. St. John contrasts the earthly and human testimony with the heavenly and divine. Now some hold that the three witnesses in heaven are witnesses of Christ's divinity, but the three witnesses on earth are witnesses of His humanity, as Innocent III says (chapter In quadam, On the celebration of the Mass), and St. Thomas. But it is more correct that both [sets of witnesses] are adduced to prove the divinity of Christ: for it is this that St. John undertook to prove in verse 5, because Ebion, Cerinthus, and others denied it. Whence too he immediately adds: "He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony of God in himself," etc.
Mystically St. Bernard (Sermon 2 on the Octave of Easter) takes "on earth" to mean men living on earth, so that by these three — Spirit, water, and blood — the just are distinguished from the unjust, just as by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in heaven the Blessed are distinguished from the damned. "For to the Blessed, he says, the vision of the Trinity bears witness; for the elect, the blood and merits of Christ are fruitful, and the water of baptism and the grace of the Holy Spirit": of which more shortly. For now let us examine each item.
THERE ARE THREE. — St. John sets forth a twofold trinity of witnesses to Christ, who testify to His divinity and that He is the Son of God; and he sets one over against the other — nay rather, joins them together — in the office of bearing witness. The first is uncreated, namely Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; the second created, namely water, blood, and spirit, which proceeds from the uncreated and corresponds to it on equal terms, and so represents it. For water refers to the Father, blood to the Son, and spirit to the Holy Spirit.
For the Father is the principle of all things, just as water is. For from water were formed the heavens, the air, the birds, the fishes, as I have shown at the beginning of Genesis; again, water nourishes herbs, trees, plants, and all animate and living things. Whence in Latin it is called "aqua" as if "a qua" (from which) all things are born; or, as Festus says, "a qua juvamur" (by which we are helped). Whence Thales posited water as the principle of all things; though others would have "aqua" derived as it were from "æqua" (equal), because it is even and equal, unless stirred by the winds. Thus God the Father is equal and the same to all.
The Orphic and symbolic contemplators reckoned the supreme good — or the Ocean of all goods — to be water, and therefore to represent God. Hence Virgil, following Homer, in book IV of the Georgics, indicates Ocean as the father of all things; and Pliny, book I, chapter xxxi: "This element, he says, commands all the others; waters devour the lands, quench the flames, mount up on high, and even claim heaven for themselves: what can be more wonderful than waters standing in the heavens?" Whence too the heavens are called in Hebrew "shamayim," that is, "there are waters."
Again, water signifies that abundance of goods and graces which is in God the Father, according to that of Isaiah xii: "You shall draw waters with joy from the fountains of the Saviour." It is well known that the Egyptians worshipped the Nile as God, because every harvest came to them from the overflowing Nile. Hence that line of Parmenon: "Jupiter, the Nile of Egypt." Moreover water aptly represents the mercy and kindness of God the Father. Wherefore Agathius testifies, in books I and II of the Historia Peregrina, that the Alemanni adored the water of rivers in place of the gods. In the same place Arnobius (book VI, Against the Gentiles) teaches the same of the Persians. So too today certain Indians worship water, as Vasquez relates (book III On Navigation, folio 362).
Suidas, under the word "Brahmins," records that the Brahmins live exceedingly long because they drink nothing but water. Lucian likewise in his Macrobii writes that life is prolonged through water, and therefore the Syrians lived to three hundred years. Apollonius of Tyana taught that water-drinkers never suffer from vertigo of the head, as Philostratus relates in the Life of Apollonius. For more on the excellence of water, see Tiraqueau's treatise On Nobility, chapter xxxi; Plutarch's question Whether Water be Worthier than Fire? See also the Hydragiologia of M. Antonio Marsilio Colonna.
Moreover, under the testimony of the uncreated Most Holy Trinity, understand also the testimony of the holy angels: for through them as ministering spirits and ambassadors the Most Holy Trinity has spoken and borne witness to Christ — at His nativity, when they sang: "Glory to God in the highest"; at His baptism, Matthew iii, 17; at His transfiguration, Matthew xvii, 5; at His resurrection, Matthew xxviii, 5; at His ascension, Acts i, 10.
WHO GIVE TESTIMONY. — That is, to Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, and consequently that by His faith and works we may overcome the world, and that the faith of Christ is our victory.
ON EARTH. — That is, from the earth; just as the first three are in heaven, that is, testify from heaven to men living on earth.
THE SPIRIT, AND THE WATER, AND THE BLOOD. — As if to say: The spirit which Christ, dying on the cross, sent forth into the hands of the Father, together with the water and the blood which flowed forth from the side of Christ, testify that Christ was truly not only man but also God; because by these, as by an adequate and just price, Christ made satisfaction for the offense against God, according to the oracles of the Prophets, which He could not have done unless He were God, as I said in the preceding verse.
Again, the spirit, because it was sent forth by Christ with a great cry, proved Him to be God. Whence "when the Centurion saw that crying out thus He had expired, he said: Truly this man was the Son of God," Mark xv, 39. For the voice fails the dying; therefore this cry of Christ was miraculous, not natural, signifying that Christ above man was God, and so died by His will, not by infirmity, as St. Jerome, Chrysostom, Euthymius, and Theophylact say in the same place; and Christ Himself indeed: "No one, He says, takes it (My soul) from Me, but I lay it down of Myself, and I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again," John, chapter x, verse 18.
Secondly, St. Augustine, book III Against Maximus, chapter xxii; Lyranus and the Gloss take the spirit to be the Holy Spirit poured out by Christ at Pentecost; for He testified that Christ was God, both because Christ sent this Spirit, and because the Spirit Himself, through the mouths of the Apostles, declared that He was sent by Christ, and that Christ was the true Son of God.
Thirdly, Œcumenius takes the spirit to be the Holy Spirit who is given in baptism. "In baptism, he says, through water Jesus by the Father's testimony He was declared the Son of God; but through the blood, when, as He was about to be crucified, He said: 'Glorify Me, Thou Father,' and a voice was sent down which said: 'I have both glorified and will glorify again.' But through the spirit He was manifested, when as God He rose from the dead."
To this belongs the exposition of Didymus, except that he refers this testimony not to Christ but to our spiritual birth, which takes place in baptism. For here, he says, the spirit, that is, the Trinity, is invoked; and the blood, that is, the merits of Christ's humanity, work and sanctify through the water of baptism. And that of St. Ambrose, book X, on chapter xxii of Luke: "Water, he says, He gave for the laver, blood for the price, spirit for the resurrection." Whence:
Anagogically, but very aptly to the letter and almost literally, the water, blood, and spirit emitted by Christ on the cross, but again taken up by Him at the resurrection, signified that He was truly the promised Messiah, the conqueror of death and hell, and therefore the Son of God: for Christ rose by His own power, and resumed these three by His own power, I say — both of His humanity and of His divinity. For the soul and spirit of Christ, now glorified, received from divinity (to which it was hypostatically united) a power of its own; by it He united Himself to His body in the tomb, animated, vivified, and glorified it; and in like manner He will animate, vivify, and glorify our bodies at the resurrection, as I said on 1 Peter iii, 21 and 22.
Mystically, by spirit, water, and blood are signified the three things that concur unto our justification; and so they bear witness to Christ, by whose merits and virtue our justification is wrought. For the blood signifies the merit of the blood and death of Christ, applied to us in justification; the water signifies the ablution and purgation of sins; the spirit signifies the inspiration and infusion of spirit — that is, of spiritual life, grace, charity, and the other virtues by which we are made just. Whence St. Ambrose, in his book On the Holy Spirit, chapter xi, says, "By spirit the mind is renewed, by water we are washed, blood is the price." So too Cyril, On Faith to the Queens, and St. Leo, epistle 10, chapter v: "These three, he says, are the spirit of sanctification, the blood of redemption, the water of baptism."
Allegorically, by these three are signified the three principal Sacraments, which bear witness to Christ, as having been instituted by Him and as sanctifying by His merits and virtue. "Water" signifies baptism, "blood" the chalice of the Eucharist, "spirit" penance. Whence too, by breathing the spirit upon the Apostles, Christ gave them the power of remitting sins, John xx, 22. All these things prove Christ to be God, both because the remission of sins is a work of God and of divine power, and because the transubstantiation of bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ cannot be effected except by divine power and might. Furthermore, the spirit signifies the Sacrament of Penance, both because through it the Holy Spirit remits sins — for this is the greatest gift of God — for all the gifts of God, especially grace, are in Holy Scripture appropriated to the Holy Spirit, because He is the first notional gift of the Father and the Son, for He proceeds from them by way of love and gift; and because He, through penance, breathes into us, dead through sins, the spirit of life — namely, of grace.
Wherefore from this passage, and from the flowing of water and blood from Christ's side, Innocent III teaches and proves that water must be mingled with wine in the chalice of the Eucharist, so that it may be converted into the blood of Christ — so he himself in chapter In quadam, On the Celebration of the Masses.
Symbolically, first: St. Bernard, Sermon 1 on the Octave of Easter: "By water, he says, understand baptism; by blood, martyrdom; by spirit, charity poured forth in our hearts." Again, Catharinus takes water to mean the tribulations to undergo which Christ came, and to which He calls Christians. Others take water to mean wisdom, according to that of Ecclesiasticus xv, 3: "He fed him with the bread of life and understanding, and gave him the water of saving wisdom to drink." Others take water to mean the multitude of the Gentiles believing in Christ, according to that text: "Many waters are many peoples," Apocalypse xvii.
Secondly, Baldwin of Canterbury (whose work I unrolled in manuscript at Louvain), book I On the Eucharist, chapter xxviii: "The spirit of the just, he says, the water of the penitent, the blood of the Martyrs testify to Christ the redeemer." For, as Tertullian says, "The blood of the Martyrs is the seed of Christians"; and St. Leo: "The Church is not diminished by persecutions, but increased; and the Lord's field is ever clothed with a richer harvest, while each grain that falls rises again multiplied."
Thirdly, Clement of Alexandria takes "spirit" here for life, "water" for faith and regeneration, "blood" for knowledge: which are the salvific virtues of the Saviour. Again St. Ambrose, in his book On the Holy Spirit, chapter vi, assigns to the blood death, to the water burial, and to the spirit life, in baptism.
Fourthly, St. Augustine here holds that by these three are noted the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, namely the Father by "spirit," the Son by "blood," and the Holy Spirit by "water." For of the Father it is said: "God is Spirit," John iv, 24. The Son assumed the blood and flesh of human nature. Of the Holy Spirit it is said: "From His belly shall flow rivers of living water," John vii, 38. And for this reason it is said "there are three," not three things, as one would have said, "who give testimony." And again: "And these three are one," as if to say, the three Persons are one divine essence. Whence Pope Hyginus, epistle 1, and John II, epistle 1, place the testimony of those who in heaven testify after the witnesses on earth, as though the latter explained the former. And the fact that these three came forth from Christ's body represented the Church, which is the body of Christ, that was to preach the one and the same essence of the Trinity, says St. Augustine. More fittingly you would adapt "water" to the Father, "blood" to the Son, and "spirit" to the Holy Spirit: for both [Father and Holy Spirit] are spirit; but water is the principle of all things, just as the Father is. For from water were created the heavens and all the rest, as I have shown at the beginning of Genesis — and to this John alludes. For just as in the beginning of the world God created water, and the Spirit of the Lord was borne upon the waters, that from these He might form the rest: so likewise in the re-creation of the world, God, by giving the Holy Spirit through the water of baptism, formed Christians as new, spiritual, and divine men — and that by the merit of Christ's blood.
Tropologically, St. Bernard, Sermon 2 on the Octave of Easter: "To have the testimony of justice by blood, water, and spirit," that you have been reborn through Christ, "is if you abstain from sins, if you bring forth worthy fruits of penance, if you do the works of life." Therefore blood signifies continence; water, tears; spirit, spiritual works — which testify that we are regenerate and holy.
And in Sermon 1, he shows that these three are opposed to the three things in the world, and overcome them: for the concupiscence of the flesh is overcome by the blood of mortification; the concupiscence of the eyes, by tears of compunction; the pride of life, or the spirit of vanity, by the spirit of charity. "Certain it is, he says, that the testimony of the world being triumphed over is this: if you chastise your body and subject it to the spirit, lest by a pernicious liberty it serve pleasure; if you offer your eyes to weeping rather than to wantonness or curiosity; if, finally, burning with spiritual love, you give your soul to no vanity. Deservedly indeed there is one — the spirit — that bears witness on earth and likewise in heaven, because though the affliction of the body shall cease and the fount of tears be dried up, yet charity never fails."
To these three the testimony of the Most Holy Trinity will lend its support: "Truly great will be the testimony of those whom the Father shall have received in heaven as sons and heirs, the Son shall have called brothers and co-heirs, and the Holy Spirit shall make to be one spirit with God for those cleaving to Him."
Again, by these three may be tropologically understood three grades of the faithful: of beginners, by water; of those advancing, by spirit; of the perfect, by blood — for this is the symbol of martyrdom. St. Bernard adds, in Sermon 76, On the Little Ones, that there are likewise three witnesses in hell — namely the worm by which conscience is gnawed, the fire by which body and soul are burned, and despair: "Because their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched," Isaiah lxvi, 24. "To those who are in heaven, says St. Bernard, is given the testimony of beatitude; to those on earth, of justification; to those in hell, of damnation. The first testimony is of glory, the second of grace, the third of wrath."
Finally, Baronius, vol. II, year of Christ 106, supposes that St. John here strikes at the heresiarch Elxai and his brother Jexeo, who, as St. Epiphanius says (heresy 19), "descended from the Jews, and thinking with the Jews, etc., introducing salt and water, earth and bread, heaven and ether and wind, prescribed and handed down an oath by these to them as divine worship. And again at another time he laid down seven other witnesses — heaven, I say, and water, and spirits, and the holy angels of prayer, and oil, and salt, and earth"; and chapter xxx: "When, he says, one of them either falls sick or is bitten by a creeping thing, he descends into the waters and invokes the names recited in Elxai — of heaven and earth, salt and water, of winds and the angels of justice, of bread and oil — and begins to say: Bring help to me, and take away pain from me."
Therefore against these fictitious and superstitious seven witnesses of the heretic Jexeo, St. John sets six true witnesses — three heavenly and three earthly. For this Jexeo, with Elxai, was contemporary and coeval with St. John; for he flourished in the year of Christ 106, while St. John lived to the year of Christ 101.
THE SPIRIT, AND THE WATER, AND THE BLOOD. — Pope Hyginus, epistle 1, and John II, epistle 1, and Idacius (book On the Trinity) read "water, blood, and flesh." But wrongly: for the Greek, Syriac, and Latin manuscripts have "Spirit," not "flesh" — for the latter is included in the blood.
AND THESE THREE ARE ONE. — Certain Latin and Greek manuscripts, such as the Complutensian and Royal copies, lack these words; see Francis Lucas, Annotation 213. Whence St. Thomas, Opusculum xxiv, on the second decretal, says these were inserted by the Arians, so as to gather from them by parity that the three Persons are said to be one not essentially, but testificatively. However, most Latin and the more correct Greek manuscripts read them — but thus: "and these three are unto one"; and the Syriac, "these three are in one," as if to say: These three — namely the water, blood, and spirit of Christ — are not one as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one, but "unto one," that is, refer to one — namely Christ and Christ's humanity, or mystically to our one justification and perfection. Whence Idacius (book On the Trinity) reads, "and three are in us"; but contrary to the faith of the other manuscripts.
Secondly, "unto one," namely they concur in the testimony concerning Christ as God and man, mediator, redeemer, and justifier. Hear St. Augustine, book III Against Maximinus, chapter xxii: "They are one, he says, the water, blood, and spirit, by a certain harmony of testifying; the Father, the Word, and the Spirit, by a unity of nature besides." For, as Innocent III says at the Lateran Council, "Between Creator and creature so great a likeness cannot be marked but that a greater unlikeness between them must be noted."
Verse 9: The Testimony of God Is Greater
9. IF WE RECEIVE THE TESTIMONY OF MEN, THE TESTIMONY OF GOD IS GREATER, — as if to say: If we give faith to the testimony of men, much more should we give faith to the testimony of God concerning Christ, because it is greater both in dignity and authority and in truth and certainty; for it is the testimony of God, who infinitely surpasses all men and angels in majesty and truthfulness, and so is itself the first and supreme truth, which cannot lie, be deceived, or deceive. Wherefore Paul declares, Romans iii, 4: "But God is truthful, and every man a liar." Furthermore, the testimony of the Church, of the Apostles, and of the Prophets is the testimony of God; for the Church is governed by the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of truth; and "the holy men of God spoke as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit," says St. Peter, 1st epistle, chapter 1, verse 21. So John the Baptist was sent by God to be the witness and herald of Christ, John i, 7. So all the elements — the rocks split at Christ's death, the trembling earth, the sun and moon obscured along with the stars, the dead rising up — sensing the divine power of Christ, bore witness to Him.
Whence St. Thomas, in Sermon 1 On Pentecost, enumerates twelve witnesses of Christ: that Christ had testimony — first, from God the Father; second, from the Son; third, from the Holy Spirit; fourth, from the angels; fifth, from the saints; sixth, from miracles; seventh, from heaven; eighth, from the air; ninth, from water; tenth, from earth; eleventh, from fire; twelfth, from hell. Therefore the testimonies of God concerning Christ have been made exceedingly credible, so much that the faithful, if they were deceived, could say: "If we are deceived, we have been deceived by God," says Richard of St. Victor, book I On the Trinity, chapter ii.
BECAUSE THIS IS THE TESTIMONY OF GOD, WHICH IS GREATER. — The word "because" here is not so much causal as exegetical and explanatory, and is equivalent to "furthermore" or "but," as if to say: This "is the testimony of God, etc., because," that is, "which" (for in Greek there is the relative pronoun ὅτι) "He has testified concerning His Son," namely when at the baptism of Christ and on other occasions He often testified and said of Christ: "This is My Son, hear ye Him," as I said in verse 7. Moreover "testimony" here is the same as the truth testified by God. It is a metonymy, of which more shortly.
Verse 10: He Who Believes Has the Testimony Within
10. HE WHO BELIEVES IN THE SON OF GOD HAS THE TESTIMONY OF GOD IN HIMSELF. — First, because he has in himself the thing testified by God, namely this truth that Christ is the Son of God.
Secondly, because he has in himself God's very testimony, and God Himself bearing witness. For he believes Christ to be the Son of God because he believes that God has revealed this, and that God has testified to this through the Prophets, the Apostles, miracles, etc.: for the formal object of faith is God's revelation; for we believe the articles of faith because we believe them to have been revealed and attested by God, who is the first and infallible truth.
Thirdly, this testimony is faith itself, by which we believe God's testimony, taking it as a metonymy whereby the object is put for the habit or act tending toward the object, as if to say: He who believes has a singular gift of God — namely faith — which includes the testimony of God, and God Himself bearing witness, which wonderfully adorns and strengthens him to confess Christ and to retain and propagate His worship.
Fourthly, this testimony can be understood of the believer's very regeneration, adoption, grace, and glory, as if to say: He who believes in the Son of God has in himself the testimony of God, by which God attests to his soul and conscience that, through this faith by which he believes in Christ and obeys Him, he is faithful, just, a son and heir of God, and a co-heir of Christ. Whence St. John explaining this very thing immediately adds in verse 11: "And this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son." Thus Bede and Œcumenius.
HE WHO DOES NOT BELIEVE THE SON MAKES HIM A LIAR. — As if to say: Just as he who believes the Son and receives God's testimony concerning Him makes God truthful, and honors and worships Him — for by believing God he testifies that God is the first and infallible truth — so on the contrary, he who does not believe the Son and rejects God's testimony concerning Him makes God a liar, and inflicts on Him grievous ignominy and injury. For in effect he calls God, who says that Christ is His Son, a liar — which is an execrable blasphemy.
Note: For "believes" in Greek there is πεπίστευκεν, that is, "has believed," in the past tense; but John, in the Hebrew manner, uses the past tense for any tense. "Believes," therefore, means: he believes, has believed, will believe. So too for "makes" in Greek there is πεποίηκεν, that is, "has made," that is: he makes, has made, will make.
Verse 11: God Has Given Us Eternal Life
11. AND THIS IS THE TESTIMONY (as if to say: this is the part, and equally the fruit, of the testimony of God already mentioned, namely) because (or "that") God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son (through the Son, namely through faith in the Son).
— For this very thing is, first, a part of God's testimony concerning Christ; for God has testified not only that Christ is His Son, but also that He is our Saviour and Redeemer, so that he who believes in Him is justified and acquires the spiritual life of grace and of glory. So the Gloss and Thomas Anglicus.
Secondly, this very thing is the end and fruit of the testimony — that is, of the faith by which we believe God's testimony testifying that Christ is His Son — namely, that through this faith we obtain the life of grace and of glory. John alludes and as it were cites that text of his own Gospel, chapter xvii, 3: "This is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent." See what I said about this life of Christ in chapter i, verse 2. Thus Lyranus and the Gloss. With a similar phrase St. John spoke in chapter iv, 9: "In this (that is, unto this, with this end and fruit) the charity of God appeared in us, that God sent His only-begotten Son into the world, that we may live through Him"; and verse 13: "In this we know that we remain in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit"; and verse 17: "In this (that is, with this fruit) is the charity of God perfected in us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment."
"Furthermore, God has given us eternal life, he says," Bede, but to those still pilgrimaging on earth in hope, the Apostle by these words all but cries out that no human affection lives in him: no pride, no timidity, no pleasure, no sorrow, no anger, no fear, no audacity, no memory of injuries, no envy, no desire for vengeance, avarice, honor, or glory; but with all these scraped away, He alone (he says) remains to me, who is none of these things, who is sanctification itself, and purity, and immortality, and light, and truth, who feeds among the lilies in the splendors of the Saints.
By the word "hath given" (dedit), then, St. John signifies the firmness and certitude of the divine promise, and equally of our hope; namely, that we are as certain of eternal life, if we persevere in the faith and obedience of Christ, as if it had already actually been given to us and we possessed it in fact. Hence Paul says: "By hope we are saved," Rom. ch. VIII, 23; and Heb. VI, 17: "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show to the heirs of the promise the immutability of His counsel, interposed an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have the strongest comfort, who have fled for refuge to hold fast the hope set before us; which we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and firm, and which entereth in even within the veil, where the forerunner Jesus is entered for us, made a high priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech."
This faith and hope of eternal life the early Christians represented by the phoenix, which when dying is said to be reborn and to rise again into a vigorous and youthful life, as Lactantius testifies in his Poem on the Phoenix; wherefore they used to depict it on the tombs of the faithful. Thus St. Cecilia, as her Acts relate, ordered a phoenix to be sculpted on the sarcophagus of St. Maximus the Martyr, as a sign of his faith, who believed that he would find resurrection after the manner of the phoenix. So also at Rome in the subterranean crypts, the phoenix is seen sculpted on the tombs of many of the faithful, as a symbol of the resurrection and of eternal life: for Christ rising again into eternal life is our phoenix, who, raising up Christians to that same life, will likewise make them phoenixes.
Verse 12: He Who Has the Son Has Life
12. He that hath the Son (by faith, love, and obedience, believing in Him, loving Him, and obeying Him, and so abiding in God and God in him, as he said in chapter IV, verse 16), hath life — of grace in reality, of glory in hope. He alludes to that passage in his Gospel, chapter III, verse 35: "He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life; but he that is incredulous to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him." So Paul, Galatians II, 20: "I am, he says, nailed with Christ to the cross: I live, yet now not I, but Christ liveth in me," as if to say, says St. Gregory, hom. 32 on the Gospels: "That fierce persecutor was extinguished, and a devout preacher began to live. I indeed am extinguished from myself, because I do not live carnally; yet I am not essentially dead, because I live spiritually in Christ." For, as St. Dionysius says, ch. IV On the Divine Names: "Divine love causes ecstasy, removes lovers from their own state, and does not permit them to belong to themselves, but transfers them entirely into the things they love: therefore that great Paul, when he burned with divine love, was made a partaker of that surpassing power: 'I live,' he says, 'yet now not I, but Christ liveth in me,' as a true lover suffering ecstasy of mind." And Gregory of Nyssa, hom. 5 on the Canticle: "To me, he says, Christ is life."
Verse 13: That You May Know You Have Eternal Life
13. These things I write to you, that you may know that you have (incipiently, by faith, that is, in hope, whence Thomas Anglicus reads "you shall have") life eternal, you who believe (with a living faith, which works by charity) in the name of the Son of God, — that is, in the name of the Son of God, namely in the Son of God Himself. For "name" is put for the thing named and signified by the name, metonymically. He alludes to that passage in his Gospel, ch. XX, vs. 31: "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name." The Greek here adds, "that you may believe in the name of the Son of God." Whence Kemnitius carps at the Latin Vulgate as though it were mutilated. But I reply that those words are redundant in the Greek, as Erasmus also testifies; for since it has been said: "These things I write to you, who believe in the name of the Son of God," to what purpose is it added and repeated: "That you may believe in the name of the Son of God"? For this is battology, and an empty and verbose repetition of the same thing.
Here St. John recounts three fruits of a living faith in Christ. The first is eternal life, in this verse. The second, confidence in obtaining whatever is asked of God, verse 14. The third is full flight from sin, and a moral, as it were, impeccability, verse 18.
Verse 14: Confidence in Petitioning God
14. And this is the confidence (this is the second fruit of faith; for faith brings forth confidence) that whatsoever (that is, as the Greek and Vatablus have it, "that if anything") we ask according to His will (that is, what is conformable to His will and law, such as pertains to God's glory and our salvation), He heareth us — that is, He hearkens to us, and grants what is asked. Hugo and several others read "He will hear us": see what was said in chapter III, verse 21. Truly St. Augustine, tract 73 on John: "Whatsoever we ask, he says, against the benefit of our salvation, we do not ask in the name of the Savior"; and elsewhere: "For abiding in Christ, what can they will except what befits Christ? What can they will, abiding in the Savior, except what is not foreign to salvation?"
Verse 15: He Hears Whatsoever We Ask
15. And we know, etc. — The Greek adds ἐὰν, that is "if," and then the discourse of the whole verse is more connected. Whence the Zurich version translates from the Greek thus: "And if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we have asked, we know that we have the petitions" (that is, the things asked for, namely those things we ask) "which we have requested of Him"; and the Syriac, "But if we are persuaded that He hears us, whatsoever we have asked of Him, we are confident that we have already received our petitions, which we have requested of Him." According to the Greek, then, it is clear that there is here no idle repetition of the same thing, nor even according to our Latin edition: for it stirs up and inflames the zeal of prayer, says Bede. Didymus adds that St. John speaks of himself and those like him: for he himself had often experienced that whatever he asked of God, he obtained at once. The same is experienced by those who pray to God with great confidence, instancy, and perseverance.
Hear St. Gregory, on Psalm VI of the Penitential Psalms: "From the depths I have cried to Thee. He does not say: I cry, but I have cried; you have in this a lesson of perseverance, that, if you are not heard at first, you should not flag in prayer, but rather press on with petitions and outcry. God wills to be entreated, wills to be compelled, wills to be conquered by a certain importunity; therefore He tells you: The kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent bear it away. Be diligent therefore in prayer, be importunate in petitions, take care lest you flag in prayer. If He pretends not to hear what you are about, be a plunderer, that you may receive the kingdom of heaven; be violent, that you may even do violence to the heavens themselves: what is richer than this plunder? what more glorious than this violence? A good violence, by which God is not offended, but appeased; the neighbor is not harmed, but helped; sin is diminished, not multiplied."
See St. Chrysostom on the same Psalm. The same Chrysostom, in Book I On Praying to God, calls prayer the life of the soul, and accordingly says that a soul without prayer is dead. And shortly afterward he calls prayer the sinews of the soul: "For as, he says, the body coheres, runs, lives, stands, and is compacted by sinews, so that if you cut the sinews you dissolve the whole harmony of the body: so souls also subsist and are compacted together by holy prayers. But if you should deprive yourself of prayer, you would do as if you drew a fish out of water: for as water is life to a fish, so prayer is to you; through it one is given to fly up as it were from the waters, and to ascend the heavens." Again elsewhere: "Prayers are great arms, great safety, a great treasure, a great harbor, a place of refuge: for prayer is conversation with God; that you may know this, hear the Prophet saying: Let my speech be pleasing to God, that is, let my discourse appear before God." And St. Gregory of Nyssa, in his Book On Prayer: "Prayer, he says, is the strength of bodies, the abundance of a house, the right ordering of laws and justice in the city, the strength of the kingdom, the trophy of war, the security of peace, the reconciler of the divided, the preserver of the joined; prayer is the seal of virginity, the fidelity of marriage, the shield of travelers, the guardian of sleepers, the confidence of those keeping watch, the fertility of farmers, the safety of navigators, a condition of equal honor with the angels, the fruit of present things, the representation of future things."
To this is added St. Ephrem the Syrian: "Desire, he says, prayer, the familiar conversation with God; for every holy and pure prayer deals familiarly with God. Moreover, the prayer of those who perfectly desire God, with great gladness and much confidence, continually penetrates heaven itself. In it the Angels and Archangels exult, and before the throne of the holy and exalted Lord of all things they set it."
Verse 16: The Sin Unto Death
16. He who knows his brother to sin a sin not unto death, let him ask, and life shall be given to him sinning not unto death (St. Ambrose, Book I On Penance, ch. IX, and Tertullian, Book On Modesty, ch. II, read: "because he sinneth not unto death"). There is a sin unto death: not for that do I say (St. Augustine, in the place soon to be cited, reads: "I do not enjoin") that any man ask — as if to say: I have said that he who believes in Christ, by praying with confidence, obtains anything from God; whence I infer and add: If anyone knows his brother to sin any sin, let him entreat for him, and God will give him repentance, pardon, and life, both of grace and of glory. I except, however, the sin unto death, as if to say: If a brother shall have sinned with a sin not unto death, pray for him, and surely hope that you shall be heard. But if he sins with a sin unto death, I dare not promise, nor surely hope, that you will obtain pardon for him; yet I do not altogether forbid prayer; pray, if you wish, but under doubt of obtaining. Whence St. Ambrose: Not anyone of the people, he says, but a man of exceptional sanctity ought to pray for such a one.
You will ask what the "sin unto death" is. I answer first: Tertullian, in his book On Modesty, chs. II and XIX, and Armachanus (Richard FitzRalph of Armagh), in Book IX of the Armenian Questions, ch. XXVII, from this passage hold that certain most grievous sins — such as those of the demons, while they were yet on the way — are truly irremissible even in this life; and Tertullian holds adultery committed after baptism to be of this sort. But this is an error condemned in Scripture and in the Lateran Council under Innocent III.
Secondly, Origen, in Homily 12 on Exodus, holds it to be a sin which leads to destruction and drags one down into Gehenna.
Thirdly, Turrianus, Book IV In Defense of the Pontifical Epistles, ch. III, holds it to be a sin to which excommunication is annexed: for the excommunicate is impenitent, and it is not lawful to pray for one excommunicated by the public prayer of the Church. But St. John denies that we should pray for such a one with any prayer at all, even a private one.
Fourthly, St. Augustine, Book I On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, ch. XXII, and Sermon 59 On the Seasons, and Bede following him here, hold it to be the sin of envy, by which one envies a brother's grace, virtue, and salvation: "When after the recognition of God, he says, they attack brotherhood, and against the very grace by which they have been reconciled to God they are stirred up by the firebrands of envy." But St. Augustine himself moderates and restricts this very point in Book I of his Retractations, ch. XIX. Whence Fifthly, the same St. Augustine, in the same place, and in his book On Correction and Grace, ch. XII, and St. Gregory, Book VI of the Morals, ch. XXXI; Gelasius, in his book On the Anathema; Pacian, Epistle 3; Bede, Lyranus here, the Master (Peter Lombard) in Book II of the Sentences, dist. XLIII, and St. Thomas, Part III, Question Sixth, the Gloss holds it to be any mortal sin. For to pray for this is as it were the proper duty of the priest, to whose examination the sinner ought to be chastened; whereas any layman may pray for venial sins. So also Cassian, Collation XI, chapter x, and Origen, homily 12 on Exodus. The Syriac also favors this, which translates: a sin which does not condemn unto death. But John signifies the contrary when he adds: "And life shall be given to him"; for this hints that he is speaking of mortal sin, not venial, since he commands prayer for a sin which is not unto death.
Seventh, St. Jerome on Jeremiah chapter xiv holds it to be a graver sin which God has decreed to punish. "For he who has once, he says, been destined to the sword, famine, and pestilence, can be rescued by no prayers. Whence it is also said to the Prophet: Let him not pray in vain for that which he cannot obtain." So also St. Bernard, On the Steps of Humility, last chapter; Bonaventure on Book II, distinction xLIII, doubt 1; on the same place D. Thomas, and Suarez, Part III, tome IV, disputation viii, section 1.
Eighth, Dionysius holds it to be the sin of final impenitence. Whence the Bishop of Rochester, in article 17 Against Luther, hence proves Purgatory, because, namely, St. John says that prayer must be made for those who are not finally impenitent, that is, who die just or penitent, for no other reason than that they may be freed from the pains of Purgatory; but for the impenitent prayer ought not to be made, unless some peculiar revelation of God should persuade otherwise, by virtue of which St. Agnes by praying raised her lover who had been slain by an angel. Thus they say that St. Gregory prayed for the soul of the Emperor Trajan and obtained salvation for him. But this is a fable, as Baronius, Bellarmine, and others rightly show.
Ninth, Anastasius of Nicæa, Question LVIII in Scripture, holds it to be a sin against God, for instance blasphemy, of which it is said in 1 Kings II, 23: "If one shall sin against God, who shall pray for him?" Concerning which St. Jerome, in Book II Against Jovinianus: "To sin against God, he says, that is, to depart from His worship, is a sin of impiety, and its remission is more difficult." Or it is the sin which one commits knowingly: for prayer ought not to be made for this, because the one sinning can correct and convert himself with the grace of God.
Tenth, Gagneius holds it to be the sin of apostasy and unbelief, by which one falls away from the faith into heresy or idolatry.
Eleventh, St. Hilary on Psalm CXL holds it to be a sin which is committed deliberately and from malice.
Twelfth, St. Ambrose, in Book I On Penitence, chapters viii and ix, holds it to be any most grievous sin which is scarcely remitted. Œcumenius holds it to be the purpose of persevering in any sin whatsoever, for instance in retaining and avenging an injury.
Most of these opinions are true, and partly touch the matter, indeed they tend to the same point; but few touch the precise point of difficulty with a needle, as will soon become clear.
My opinion is that the "sin unto death" is any most grievous sin which, on account of its enormity, or habit, obstinacy, and malice, according to the common law through the grace which God is wont ordinarily to give, is as it were incurable, incorrigible, and insanable. Thus the sin of Judas, by which he betrayed Christ, was a sin unto death, because it drove him to despair and the noose, and to present and eternal death. Thus the sin of the Sodomites was a sin unto death, because it was enormous, and incorrigible by reason of obstinate habit, and therefore was punished with celestial fire. Thus the sin of the Jews who blasphemed and killed Christ was a sin unto death, because it was monstrous and persistent, and therefore was avenged by the common destruction of the nation through Titus, as Christ had foretold and threatened: and before Christ, Isaiah thundering in chapter I, verse 4: "Woe to the sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a wicked seed, sons accursed! they have forsaken the Lord, they have blasphemed the Holy One of Israel, they have gone away backwards. From the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no soundness in it; wound and bruise and swelling sore." And Jeremiah, chapter vi, verse 29: "In vain hath the founder melted: for their wickednesses are not consumed. Call them reprobate silver, for the Lord hath rejected them." And chapter xxx, 22: "Thy bruise is incurable, thy wound is most grievous; there is none to judge thy judgment to bind it up; thou hast no useful remedies." This is the iron griddle of Jerusalem which Ezekiel saw, chapter IV, verse 3. Therefore the sin unto death is the supreme and incurable sin, whose pardon and salvation is despaired of, and which provokes the wrath of God so much that the common prayers of the Saints cannot appease it, and therefore it accompanies and leads almost certainly and infallibly the one sinning unto the death both of body and of soul, namely into hell, unless some distinguished saint, and as it were a new Moses, obtains for him extraordinary grace and pardon from God. For just as a sin is called mortal which deprives the soul of grace as of life, and so brings to it spiritual death, but only the first: so the sin unto death, or here called death-bringing, is that which brings to him the second death, namely damnation. Again, just as a wound or infirmity is called unto death which brings bodily death to the sick man: so a sin is called unto death which inflicts spiritual death upon him, namely because it lasts unto death, and from there sends the sinner over to eternal death in hell. Therefore, just as a physician summoned to a sick man, examining him, says: I cannot cure him, he is sick unto death, the vital parts are injured, his salvation is despaired of, the disease is deadly: so the faithful, says St. John, on seeing an apostate and heretic, may say: I dare not pray for him; for he sins with a sin unto death, the vital parts are injured, he casts off the faith which is the beginning of spiritual life, his salvation is despaired of, "the sin is ingrained," says St. Gregory, Book VI on Kings, and therefore is death-bringing, demoniac, and infernal. This is the mind and opinion of St. Augustine, Jerome, Origen, Œcumenius, Bernard, Bonaventure, St. Thomas, St. Hilary, and Gagneius in the places already cited, and of St. Cyprian, On the Exhortation to Martyrdom, chapter IV. St. John alludes to that passage of St. Job, chapter xxiv, 19: "Even unto hell shall his sin," namely, lead the sinner; and to that saying of Christ to the Pharisees who refused to believe Him, John viii, 21 and 24: "I go, and you shall seek Me, and you shall die in your sin." From which passage we gather that, although the sin unto death be varied and manifold, such as impenitence, obstinacy, the purpose of persevering in any sin until death, etc., properly however St. John by "sin unto death" regards and understands the sin by which any faithful one departs from the faith and the Church of Christ, and maliciously attacks her, and strives to lead and pervert others from her to his own heresy or idolatry, which in John's age some were doing, to his great sorrow, fear, and grief. Wherefore, in order to deter the faithful from it, he calls them sinners unto death.
We gather that this is so, first, from the Gospel of St. John, chapter viii, 24, already cited, where to the Pharisees obstinately resisting Him, Christ says: "I have therefore said to you that you shall die in your sins. For if you believe not that I am He (the Messiah Savior), you shall die in your sin." Therefore the sin unto the death of a brother, that is of a faithful one, is that by which one apostatizing from the faith no longer believes in Christ, and in this perfidy obstinately wishes to remain unto death. Hence this sin is called "unto death," first, because it is wont to last through one's whole life, unto death. Secondly, because it leads as it were certainly unto the death of hell. Thirdly, because it takes away the faith, which is the foundation and beginning of spiritual life; for the other sins, because they leave faith to the sinner, hence leave him something of spiritual life and hope of rising again: but this sin, because it takes away the faith, hence takes away from the sinner all life and all hope of repenting and rising again. Fourthly, because it is not ordinarily remitted by God, but is destined and consigned to present and eternal death. He alludes to that saying about Nabuchodonosor, Jeremiah XLIII, 11: "He shall strike the land of Egypt: those who are for death, unto death; and those who are for captivity, unto captivity; and those who are for the sword, unto the sword." And chapter xvII, verse 1: "The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, with the point of a diamond, engraved upon the breadth of their heart." On which passage St. Gregory: "In the point, he says, is the end of the body; and so hard a stone is the diamond that it cannot be cut by iron. By the iron pen a strong sentence is signified, but by the diamond point an eternal end is signed. The sin of Judah, therefore, is said to be written with an iron pen, with a diamond point, because the fault of the Jews by the strong sentence of God is preserved at the end forever."
Secondly, the same thing is gathered from this, that St. John in this whole Epistle inculcates nothing else than faith and love of Christ, and brotherly love; wherefore he seems to oppose the sin unto death to both, and consequently to understand by it apostasy from Christ and the Church, which is nothing else than a community of brethren, namely of the faithful conspiring in faith, worship, and love of Christ.
Thirdly, because St. Peter in his second Epistle, throughout chapter II; St. Jude in his whole Epistle; St. John in chapter III, verse 1 and following; and St. Paul in Hebrews IV, all condemn this sin of apostates.
Fourthly, because this sin is enormous and incorrigible; both because it is a sin from sure knowledge and malice; and because it is committed directly against Christ and the Church; and because the apostate, after so many benefits received from Christ, ungratefully and imprudently spurns Him and His gifts, tramples upon, profanes, attacks them; and so closes to himself the fountains of divine grace and clemency, and excludes every medicine and means to remission. For he sets himself directly against Christ, from whom alone salvation is to be hoped for; and drives Him away from himself, indeed blasphemes Him, by whom alone he can and ought to be cured: just as a disease is called incurable which admits neither medicine nor food. Whence Paul to the Hebrews, chapter vi, verse 4: "It is impossible, he says, for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, have moreover tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, and have fallen away, to be renewed again to penance, crucifying again to themselves the Son of God, and making Him a mockery." And chapter x, verse 24: "Not forsaking our assembly (the Church, the company of the faithful), as some are accustomed, etc. For if we sin willfully after the knowledge of the truth received, there is now left no sacrifice for sins; but a certain dreadful expectation of judgment, and the rage of fire which shall consume the adversaries. A man making void the law of Moses dies without any mercy under two or three witnesses: how much more, do you think, does he deserve worse punishments, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and esteemed the blood of the testament unclean, by which he was sanctified, and offered an affront to the spirit of grace?"
Fifthly, because St. John throughout calls Christ our life, in that through faith and His grace we are led and tend to eternal life; therefore the sin unto death is unbelief in Christ, who is our life. For just as faith in Christ is the life of the soul, so unbelief in Him is the death of the soul. Hear St. John in the Gospel, chapter v, verse 24: "Amen, amen, I say to you, that he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and comes not into judgment, but has passed from death to life," etc. And in chapter xi, verse 25, Christ says to Martha: "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me, even if he be dead, shall live; and everyone that lives and believes in Me, shall not die forever," etc.
From what has been said it is clear that the sin unto death is distinct from the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit of which Matthew xII, 31 speaks, although the latter is akin and related to it. For Christ, in Matthew XII, calls the sin against the Holy Spirit the blasphemy of the Scribes, who calumniated the miracles of Christ and His divine and holy works, such as the casting out of demons, which He did by the power and might of the Holy Spirit, and they ascribed them to an unclean spirit, namely Beelzebub and a demon, and that knowingly and out of malice. For they could and ought easily to have known that those things were done by the Holy Spirit, not by a demon. For Christ opposes this blasphemy against God and the Holy Spirit to the blasphemy against the Son of Man, by which some, offended by the human conversation and familiarity of Christ, calumniated His human deeds, calling Him a wine-drinker, friend of publicans, etc., which therefore was a lesser and more excusable sin, and so less unworthy of pardon, and more easily remissible: thus Jerome, Chrysostom, Ambrose, and others throughout on Matthew xII or Luke xII. As therefore that was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, so here the sin unto death is blasphemy and perfidy against Christ; and as that is remitted with difficulty, so also is this.
Anagogically, sins unto death are the sins of blasphemy, anger, despair, and cursing of the damned and demons in hell: for this is the second death, Apocalypse xx, 14. For these are like sheep in hell, where death shall feed upon them forever.
Tropologically, the sin unto death is, first, apostasy from an Order or from Religion, namely when one who is a priest or Religious apostatizes from his state and rank, and becomes a layman or a secular; for this sin is wont to last unto death, and to lead the apostate into hell. Indeed God is wont to punish such persons in this life with a sudden or wretched and infamous death, striking some with the sword, others with the noose, others with fire, etc. See Hieronymus Platus, Book III On the Good of the Religious State, chapter xxxvii, and Dionysius the Carthusian in the Ladder of Heaven.
Secondly, the sin unto death is obstinacy, the purpose of persevering in sin, for example in hatred, quarrel, concubinage, the habit and custom of sinning. From which you may learn how pernicious it is to put on a depraved habit and custom: for this lasts through one's whole life, unto present and eternal death; for habit is a second nature; and as a man lives, so also he dies, says St. Augustine. This is what Jeremiah xIII, 22 says: "If the Ethiopian can change his skin, and the leopard his spots: so also shall you be able to do well, when you have learned evil." See what is said there. For habit induces a dulling of feeling, so that the sinner has no sense of sin, no scruple, no remorse, and at last thinks the sin is not a sin, according to that of Jeremiah v, 3: "Thou hast struck them, and they have not grieved; Thou hast bruised them, and they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than the rock, and they have refused to return." And Isaiah, chapter v, verse 20: "Woe to you that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" Such persons are in sin unto death, because their soul is separated by only a thin wall of body from the death of hell. This sin is not for anyone to cure, but for Christ alone. For one sinning thus is like Lazarus, of whom Martha says to Christ, John xi, 39: "Lord, by this time he stinks, for he has been dead four days." Whence Jesus, with great effort weeping, looking up to heaven, and crying out with a loud voice: "Lazarus, come forth," must raise him up.
Thirdly, the sin unto death is hatred and envy; for this often brings to the brother temporal death, and to the one sinning always spiritual death, and often eternal death; which sin, as that of Cain and of the devil, St. John attacks in chapter III, 12.
I DO NOT SAY THAT ANYONE SHOULD ASK FOR THAT. — So both the Greek and the Latin read, although St. Gregory, in Book VI on the Book of Kings, chapter ii, reads: "Let no one pray for him." The sense is, as if to say: I do not indeed forbid praying for such a one, but I dare not promise that he will obtain it; therefore "I do not say that anyone should ask," namely with that sure confidence of obtaining, of which the preceding verse — I said that other things are to be sought and obtained. For God often does not hear those praying for a sin unto death, as being most grievous and incorrigible, according to that of Jeremiah vII, 16: "Pray not for this people, because I will not hear you." So Bellarmine, Book II On Penitence, chapter xvi, at the end, and Toletus on Luke XII, Annotation 21.
Some explain it thus: "Not for that," namely the sin unto death, "do I say that anyone should pray," so that St. John denies that prayer should be made for the sin, but not for the sinner, as if he indicated that the punishment of his sin must be paid by the sinner, and therefore must not be deprecated. But this is said more subtly than soundly; for John indicates that prayer is not to be made either for the sinner or for the sin unto death, both for the fault and for the remission of the due penalty, when he says concerning the one sinning unto death: "He who knows his brother to be sinning a sin not unto death, let him ask, and life shall be given him," namely the life of grace, which is opposed to fault, not to penalty.
Furthermore, St. Bernard, On the Steps of Humility, last chapter: "For such a one, says John the Apostle, I do not say that anyone should pray." But do you say, O Apostle, that one should despair? "Rather, let him who loves him groan; let him not presume to pray, nor cease to weep," just as Martha and Magdalene wept over the death of Lazarus, and by weeping obtained his resurrection; because humility, tears, modesty, "faith, sometimes receives what prayer does not presume."
Verse 17: All Iniquity Is Sin
17. ALL INIQUITY IS SIN, AND THERE IS A SIN UNTO DEATH. The Greek and Syriac add a negation, and read: "And there is a sin not unto death," as if to say: All iniquity is sin, but it is not a sin unto death, because through penitence and the grace of God it is medicable and curable. Hence Cajetan dares to assert that the Latin text, which lacks the negation, is corrupt. But the Latin texts consistently omit the negation, both because the sense is more convenient and connected. For he sets forth and contrasts two kinds of sin, one which is unto death, the other which is not unto death, but is a common and venial iniquity. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Every iniquity indeed is sin, but not every one is unto death; because there is a peculiar sin which, as he says, is also the sin unto death. For any iniquity one ought to pray with sure confidence of obtaining pardon; for the sin unto death not so, as I said a little before. See what was said on chapter III, verse 4. For "iniquity" in Greek is ἀδικία, that is injustice, which is properly opposed to justice. Aristotle in the Categories of Quality: δικαιοσύνη, he says, ἀδικίᾳ ἐναντίον, that is justice is contrary to injustice. But just as in Scripture, and even in Aristotle and the Ethical writers, justice is often taken generally for any virtue, so also injustice or iniquity is taken for any sin, wickedness, crime, and evil deed. So it is taken here.
Verse 18: He Who Is Born of God Sins Not
18. WE KNOW THAT WHOSOEVER IS BORN OF GOD, SINS NOT; BUT THE GENERATION OF GOD PRESERVES HIM. The Interpreter reads γέννησις ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ τηρεῖ αὐτόν (the generation from God keeps him); some now read γεννηθείς ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ τηρεῖ ἑαυτόν, that is, he who is born of God keeps himself, namely by the power received from divine generation: so also the Syriac.
AND THE EVIL ONE TOUCHES HIM NOT. This is the third fruit of living faith, or of regeneration, by which one is reborn in Christ through faith and grace, namely the preservation from sin at least the more grievous and mortal, and consequently from the force and power of the evil one, namely the devil. I have explained these things in chapter III, verses 6 and 9, where St. John said the same thing, indeed more, namely that such a one cannot sin, that is, so far as it depends on the grace received through divine generation, if he follows its inclination and guidance, just as one who in darkness follows a lamp and the preceding light cannot err or stumble. Hear Œcumenius: St. John wished to indicate that "he who has been adopted by God as a son, will never sin either unto death or not unto death; since once he has surrendered himself to Christ dwelling in him through adoption, he will remain untouched and unpolluted by sin." And shortly after: "He grants us this grace, that, if we diligently guard and preserve His gift in ourselves, we may also be able not to sin," namely so long as we can and will constantly persevere in the grace of God. See St. Augustine, On Rebuke and Grace, chapter XII; St. Bernard, Sermon 23 on the Canticle, and Sermon 1 on Septuagesima, where he adapts these things to the predestined and the elect to glory. For the generation of God preserves these from sin, and although they sometimes sin, as St. Peter by denying Christ, and David by committing adultery, yet they soon rise again, so that charity does not so much seem to be lost as to be stupefied and put to sleep in them. Thus St. Bernard.
But St. John speaks more generally of any faithful and just person, as if to say: The faithful one so does not sin with the sin unto death, of which I have already treated, that he does not sin with mortal sin at all; but "generation," that is the new birth from God, namely the grace "of God," by which he has been regenerated and made a son of God, preserves him. It is a metonymy; for generation is put for the regenerating grace. St. Gregory, in Book V on Book I of Kings, and St. Bernard in the place cited, instead of "generation of God" read "heavenly generation." By "generation" St. Gregory understands the knowledge of the divine will, with love of the same; St. Bernard, divine predestination; Didymus, voluntary regeneration, which takes place through spontaneous conversion and penitence. Others better take it as grace and charity; for through this comes the regeneration and renewal of the new man, namely of the faithful and holy soul, and its constancy in sanctity.
Hear St. Augustine on Psalm XII, treating that passage of Canticles viii, 6, Love is strong as death: "The strength of charity could not be expressed more magnificently; for who resists death? Fires are resisted, waves, iron; powers are resisted, kings are resisted: death alone comes, who resists it? Nothing is stronger than it; therefore charity has been compared to its strength; for because charity itself slays what we were, that we may be what we were not, love produces in us a kind of death. By that death he was dead who said: The world is crucified to me, and I to the world. By that death those were dead to whom he said: For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." St. Gregory, expounding the same comparison of death, in homily 11 on the Gospel: "Rightly, he says, is it said by Solomon: Love is strong as death; namely because, as death destroys the body, so the charity of eternal life renders one as it were insensible to the love of temporal things." And shortly, having brought forward the example of Blessed Agnes: "For neither, he says, could this holy one, whose birthday we celebrate today, have been able to die for the Lord in body, if she had not first died to earthly desires in mind. For her mind, raised to the summit of virtue, despised torments, trampled rewards, stood unconquered before armed kings and governors, stronger than the one striking, more sublime than the one judging."
AND THE EVIL ONE TOUCHES HIM NOT. By "the evil one" Didymus and Thomas the Englishman understand the world, which is wholly placed in wickedness, as is said in verse 19, namely worldly and wicked men. Others better, throughout, understand the devil: he is called by antonomasia ὁ πονηρός, that is "that malignant and wicked one"; he "does not touch," that is, does not harm "him," namely the one born of God; the Syriac: does not approach him, as if to say: God does not permit the devil to approach the just; or, if He does permit it, He does not permit him to harm him by drawing him to consent to sin; indeed He does not permit him to harm him in body, except for his good, virtue, and glory, just as He permitted Job to be touched and afflicted by the devil. For that strength which the Saints have received from that heavenly birth perseveres in them, and so confirms and fortifies them that they cannot be deceived by any snares of the demon, enticed by any blandishments, nor conquered by any threats and terrors. This is what Zechariah says in chapter ii, verse 8: "He who touches you, touches the apple of My eye." And the Psalmist in Psalm civ, 15: "Touch not My anointed." And Paul: "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will make also with temptation a way out," 1 Corinthians x, 13. See Cassian, Collation VII, chapter xxii, where he shows that Christ has disarmed and enervated the devil, so that he either has no strength at all to tempt the faithful, or only moderate and feeble strength, so that he can easily be conquered and overcome by the faithful armed with the grace of Christ.
Verse 19: The Whole World Lies in the Evil One
19. WE KNOW THAT WE ARE OF GOD, AND THE WHOLE WORLD IS PLACED IN THE EVIL ONE. In Greek κεῖται, that is, it lies, is situated. By "evil one," first, very fittingly and genuinely Hugo, the Gloss, Dionysius, and others take the devil; for of the devil he said in the preceding verse: "And the evil one does not touch him"; and he opposes him to God. It is the epilogue of the Epistle, as if to say: Let this be the conclusion and summary of my words: that we should rejoice exceedingly because, born again of God, we may abide, live, and exist in Him, and in Him lead a pure, holy, heavenly, and divine life; while on the contrary the world, that is, worldly people, are placed in the evil one, that is, lie oppressed under the wretched and tyrannical power and dominion of the devil, and in him lead an impure, wicked, infernal, and diabolical life. For through sin, born again as it were of the devil, they have enslaved themselves to him; whence by his impulse and will, as a slave is, they are driven into every wickedness and misery, so that he wishes to be worshiped and adored by them as God in the idols. Furthermore, the Manicheans err, who hold that the world is placed in the evil one because it was created by the devil, as if he, by creating it, breathed into it his own malice and malignity; whence they teach that all bodily creatures, as having been created by an evil angel, are evil.
Here belongs that fitting explanation of some, "the whole world is placed in the evil one," that is, in idolatry and the worship of demons; for such was the world in St. John's age. Whence by way of explanation he adds in the last verse: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols"; for from idolatry follow all vices and sins, as the Wise Man says in chapter xiv, verse 27: "The worship of nameless idols, he says, is the cause and beginning and end of every evil."
Secondly, "evil one" can be taken for malice, depravity, and wickedness. Whence Salvian, Book IV On Providence, reads: "The whole world is placed in evil." He alludes to Genesis vi, 5: "God seeing that the wickedness of men was much on the earth, and that every thought of the heart was bent on evil"; in Greek, upon evil things; in Hebrew, every imagination, or conception of the thoughts of the heart was evil. Therefore the whole world is placed in the evil one, that is, in malice and concupiscence, which solicits to every crime. For because the world, that is, all worldly men in the sinning Adam, contracted original sin and concupiscence, hence through it they are driven to every evil. So Œcumenius, Bede, Lyranus, and others. Hence St. Ambrose in the Apology of David, chapter ii: "The world, he says, is placed in the evil one, because all men are born under sin, whose very origin is in vice." The world therefore is an ocean of crimes and a deluge of vices, according to that of Hosea iv, 2: "Cursing and lying and murder and theft and adultery have overflowed, and blood has touched blood."
It is somewhat trivial what Lyranus and Thomas the Englishman add: "Malignus," they say, is so called as it were "malus ignis" (evil fire) of concupiscence, namely of gluttony, luxury, pride; or the world is "in maligno," that is, in a bad year, by which is proverbially signified every misfortune, every misery, every evil.
Experience teaches us how the world, like Sodom, is full of greed, pride, fraud, luxury, gluttony, avarice, and every evil. Hear St. Prosper to the Objections of Vincent in VI: "The whole world indeed, he says, is placed in the evil one, and the malice of many men is such as that of the demons, etc. But this distinguishes evil men from demons, that for men, even very evil ones, if God should have mercy, reconciliation remains; for demons, however, no conversion is preserved unto eternity." Then he adds: "Just as therefore God did not put into the prevaricating angels that will which did not stand in truth; so neither did He insert into men this affection by which they should imitate the devil," etc. Salvian, On Providence: "Rightly, he says, is the whole age said to be in evil, where the good cannot have a place; since it is so wholly full of iniquities that either those who are in it are evil, or those who are good are tormented by the persecution of many."
St. John seems to allude to the three evils of the world which he recounted in chapter II, verse 16, namely the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life; for in these consists the whole malignity of the whole world. Therefore he who is wise, let him flee from the world and the conversation of worldly men, let him betake himself to some assembly of saints, just as Lot, fleeing from the burning of Sodom, saved himself in the mountain. Hear St. Cyprian, Book I, Epistle 11: "Lest occasion be given, he says, to the devil, lying in wait and desiring to rage to do harm, when the Apostle also says: Do not give place to the devil. Therefore the ship must be vigilantly delivered from dangerous places, lest it be broken among the rocks and stones; the burden must be quickly taken from the fire, before it is consumed by the flames overtaking it. No one near to danger is safe for long." And the same, On the Singularity of Clerics: "Confidence is adverse which entrusts its life with certainty to dangers; and slippery is the hope which hopes it can be saved amid the fuel of sin. Uncertain is the victory of fighting amid hostile arms; and impossible is the deliverance of being surrounded by flames and not burning. The one sleeping on the bank should fear lest he fall. In this matter it is more expedient to fear well than to trust ill; and it is more useful that a man recognize himself as weak, than to wish to seem strong, and emerge weak. About which the Apostle rebukes the presumptuous, saying: If anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. For certain is the deceiver who deceives his own soul, who, by not guarding against things contrary to harmful matters, has mingled himself with them. But that man takes safer counsel for himself, who, ever distrustful of evil men, always greatly fears whatever harmful appearances." Thus Cyprian.
The same thing was represented to St. Anselm in a heavenly vision, as his Life records: "For being rapt in ecstasy he saw an immense and precipitous river, into which all the filth that was anywhere on earth flowed together, so that nothing could be made fouler and viler than those waters, which also whatever they touched, they swept and rolled away, men, women, rich, poor. Marveling at this spectacle and pitying it, when he had asked by what things they were nourished and how they lived, the reply was given to him that the unhappy ones drank from and delighted in that very mire by which they were dragged. Indeed, the interpretation of this mystery was added, that this torrent was the world itself, in which blind mortals are wrapped up in their riches, honors, and other lusts, and although they are so miserable that they cannot even stand, yet they themselves think they are blessed and fortunate. He was then led into a certain enclosure of a wide and spacious cloister, all of whose walls were overlaid with the purest silver and shone in a wonderful manner. In the middle was a meadow, and in it little plants, not like those common ones, but all silver, and yet living and soft, so that they easily yielded to one sitting on them, and when he rose, they straightened up by themselves; the air, moreover, was calm and pleasant, in short everything so delightful and sweet that nothing more could seem to be desired for happiness. And this was indicated to him to be the religious state, so that without doubt by such an image God wished to teach that in the world all things are foul, uncertain, deadly, always rushing headlong; but on the contrary in religion all things are beautiful, all delightful, in short all like silver, both gleaming and precious." See St. Ambrose, Book On Flight from the World, and St. Basil in the Rules Set Forth at Greater Length, chapter vi, and St. Bernard, Sermon 3 On the Circumcision.
Thirdly, our Martín de Roa, Book II of Singular Things, chapter ii, explains thus: "The world is placed in the evil one," that is, in an obscure, slippery, and precipitous place, narrow and steep, so that it agrees with that of the Wise Man: "All things are difficult; for the fashion of this world passes away." Why then should we not often slip and run into stones in the world? So Psalm xxxvi: "Be not, he says, emulous of evildoers, nor envy them that work iniquity, etc. Hope in the Lord, and do good, and you shall be fed with His riches." Again, the world is placed in the evil one and in malignity, that is, worldly people have a malignant heart, that is, first, sterile as a thin and barren soil, which does not receive fertility even with the greatest cultivation and care applied. Secondly, they have a malignant heart, that is, narrow, difficult, peevish, sparing, miserly, which gives itself in no way to God, nor opens itself to receive His greatness, according to that of Baruch I: "We have departed each one into the thought of our evil heart, to serve strange gods, doing evil before the eyes of our God." For all these things signify the term "malignus." So Servius on that passage of Virgil, II Georgics: "Difficult at first the lands and barren hills." Barren, he says, that is unfruitful. And Nonius: "A malignant field for farmers, he says, illiberal and less productive, is one whose yield is narrower." Virgil, Æneid VI: "He said malignant light for thin, small, and obscure. For 'malignant,' says Servius, 'properly means narrow, as Virgil, XI Æneid: Where the narrow path leads, And the narrow jaws and malignant entrances bring [them]." — that is, narrow, obscure, and difficult. Martial, in Book X to Avitus: "This hearth grows warm with malignant fire, that one shines with mighty light." And Juvenal, Satire 10, called the Numina malignant, that is, stingy, and unwilling to grant what was asked of them. For he says thus: "And great vows heard by malignant deities," that is, by stingy ones, unwilling to grant what was sought. Livy: "The malignity of contributing from private means," that is, stinginess, etc. Quintilian, Book XI, chapter XI: "In praising the speeches of pupils, neither malignant nor effusive." But Donatus, excellently, on Hecyra, act 1, scene 2: "A malignant person, he says, is one who shows his own difficulty." Thus in 4 Esdras, chapter III, it is said: "You have not taken away from them a malignant heart" (that is, sterile, stony, hard), "so that Your law might bear fruit in them." These are the words of Roa. According to him, the sense here will be: a faithful person born of God has a holy, ample, liberal, sincere, candid, divine heart; but the world, that is, worldlings, have a malignant heart, that is, depraved, narrow, greedy, earthly, false, twisted, diabolical.
Verse 20: The Son of God Has Come
20. And we know that the Son of God has come (St. Ambrose, Book I On the Faith, ch. VII, reads "has appeared"), AND HAS GIVEN US UNDERSTANDING, THAT WE MAY KNOW THE TRUE GOD, AND MAY BE IN HIS TRUE SON. THIS IS THE TRUE GOD AND ETERNAL LIFE. — He explains what he had said, namely that we are of God and therefore overcome the world and the evil one, and assigns the manner of it, namely that this has been done and is done through Christ. He means: God therefore sent His Son into the world and into the flesh, so that through His divine teaching He might give us understanding and knowledge of heavenly things, so that, having abandoned idols as false gods, freed from sin, the devil and the world, we may know the true God, and may be incorporated into His Son, namely Christ and the Church, through faith, hope, and charity, and so be granted by Him the life of grace and of eternal glory. For He Himself is the true God and the true uncreated and eternal life.
Furthermore, St. Hilary, in Book VI On the Trinity, reads this passage paraphrastically, inserting certain words for the sake of explanation, thus: "Because we know that the Son of God has come, and was incarnate for us, and suffered, and rose from the dead: He has taken us up and given us the best understanding, that we may understand the truth, and may be in His true Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life, and our resurrection" (or, in another reading, our "redemption").
Instead of "sensum," the Greek has διάνοιαν, which the Syriac renders as "intelligence," "illumination of mind," "divine knowledge"; Vatablus, "mind"; St. Hilary, "the best understanding," through which he himself receives the Holy Spirit; for this is the spirit of intelligence (Wisdom VII, 22), which St. Paul, 1 Corinthians II, 16, calls "the Spirit from God, that we may know the things that have been given us by God"; Clement of Alexandria takes it as faith; Didymus as the mind of Christ, alluding to that passage of 1 Corinthians II, 16: "For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ." The sense therefore is: Rejoice, O Christians, and give immense thanks to God: because in paganism you served idols of stone and bronze, and were like inanimate rocks; through Christ you received true life, sense, and motion. In paganism you served concupiscence, and lived like dumb and brute animals; but through Christ you received διάνοιαν, that is, mind and understanding, so that you might live a human life worthy of a human being. In paganism you served the devil, and led a diabolical life in the darkness of ignorance and unbelief; but through Christ, having been granted supernatural life, you received διάνοιαν, that is, knowledge, sense, and taste of heavenly and divine things. This is what so many centuries before, concerning Christ, Baruch III, 36 foretold: "This is our God; He has invented every way of discipline, and given it to Jacob His servant and to Israel His beloved. After these things He was seen on earth and conversed with men."
THAT WE MAY KNOW THE TRUE GOD. — The Father. St. Hilary, in the passage cited, St. Jerome on Isaiah ch. LXV, and St. Leo, sermon 1 On the Fast of the Tenth Month, read: "That we may know the True One," namely God the Father. For "true" is an epithet of God, who is truth itself by essence.
AND THAT WE MAY BE IN HIS TRUE SON. — The Greek, the Syriac, and St. Athanasius (in the oration on the words "God of God") read: "And that we may be in the True One Himself, namely in His Son Jesus Christ," by which it is signified that the Son is ὁμοούσιον (consubstantial) with the Father, because He Himself is true and truth by essence, namely true Deity, equally as is God the Father. So teach Didymus, St. Jerome in the place cited, St. Athanasius, Cyril, Nazianzen, and all others who write against the Arians.
Furthermore, we are in the Son through faith and the grace which we draw from Him, just as a branch is in the tree from which it draws sap and life, according to that saying of Christ: "I am the vine, you are the branches; as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me" — John ch. XV, verses 1 and 4.
In these few words, St. John embraces what is, as it were, a compendium of the entire Epistle, of the Creed, and of the Christian faith, and assigns its two chief mysteries, namely: the Son consubstantial with the Father, and His incarnation. Hence Bede: "What, he says, is plainer than these words? What is sweeter? What could be said more powerfully against all heresies?" And St. Athanasius, in the disputation Against Arius, says that this is the written demonstration (which Arius demanded of him) for the divinity of the Son; and St. Cyril, Book XII of the Thesaurus, ch. XIII: "For if He is true God, he says, He is so substantially, not by participation, like creatures. For He who is true God is by nature God." And St. Ambrose, Book I On the Faith, last ch.: "If true God, he says, then certainly not created, having nothing deceptive or false, nothing confused or dissimilar." And in ch. VIII he intimates from this that title of the Nicene Creed: "God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten of the Father, not made, of one substance with the Father." And St. Jerome in the place cited: "Otherwise, he says, if He is not true, He will be like an idol"; and, as Victor of Utica says in Book II On the Persecution of the Vandals: "If He is of a different substance from the Father, either He is not the true Son, or — what is wicked to say — He is born degenerate." And St. Bernard: "If Son of God, therefore God; because the sons of kings are kings."
THIS IS THE TRUE GOD. — Erasmus, in his customary Arianizing manner, twisting and perverting most passages of Scripture concerning the divinity of the Son, likewise twists and perverts this one. He says: "This," namely the true God, that is the Father, not the Son, is the true God; but in that case this would be battology (idle repetition). For who does not know that the true God is the true God? Therefore the pronoun "this" does not refer to τὸ "true God" which preceded, but refers to the true Son of God. For just as He is the true Son of God, so consequently He must necessarily be the true God. Hence Œcumenius asserts that τὸ οὗτος ("this"), which is demonstrative, is here put for the relative ὅς, that is, "who," and that it refers to the Son, who preceded immediately before. Add to this that in St. John's age (as also in later centuries) no one doubted concerning the divinity of the Father, but many doubted, indeed denied, the divinity of the Son. It is therefore this, not that, which St. John everywhere strives to establish, and for that reason he wrote his Gospel. So St. Athanasius, St. Jerome on Isaiah LXVI, St. Augustine, Books II and III Against Maximinus, and many others everywhere, from this passage, as from a clear and certain one, prove the deity of the Son. Hear St. Athanasius on that text, "All things have been delivered to Me by the Father": "The Father is light, the Son is splendor and ray; and the Father is true light and true God, the Son is true God. For thus it is written by John: We are in the true Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life." Thus also St. Cyril, Book III of the Dialogue on the Trinity, and St. Ambrose, Book On the Faith to Gratian, ch. VII.
AND ETERNAL LIFE — both as His own formal life, and as our causal life, as I said on verse 2. Note: In God, on account of His supreme simplicity and perfection, there is no concretion or composition, and therefore no accident; wherefore in God all concrete things are abstract. God therefore is being and being itself; God is the living one and life itself, true and truth itself, good and goodness itself, wise and wisdom itself, just and justice itself, powerful and power itself. So St. Bernard against Gilbert of Poitiers, sermon 80 on the Canticle, and St. Thomas, Part I, Question III, article 3.
Furthermore, the knowledge of God and of His Son is not only speculative but also practical — namely, conjoined with His love and obedience — and is the most perfect good, says Clement of Alexandria, Stromata VI, and the beatitude of this life, according to that saying of Christ in John ch. XVII, 3: "This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." Cyril of Alexandria, explaining these words, says: "Knowledge is life, bringing us spiritual blessing, through which the Spirit dwells in our hearts unto the adoption of sons of God, and reforms us in true piety through Evangelical life and incorruptibility. Since therefore the origin and, as it were, the bridesmaid of all that has been said is found to be the knowledge of the true God, it is rightly called eternal life by our Lord Jesus Christ — as a mother and root, by its own virtue and nature, giving birth to eternal life. But consider diligently how the knowledge of the true God alone is brought about: for it is not without the knowledge of the Son, and therefore not without the knowledge of the Holy Spirit. For this unity of God in Trinity is understood and believed according to the Scriptures."
Nothing could be said more magnificently than what Gregory Nazianzen writes about the knowledge of God in his Oration On the State of the Bishops: "I judge, he says, that the kingdom of heaven is nothing else than the attainment of that which is the purest and most perfect; and the most perfect of all things is the knowledge of God." And St. Augustine, sermon 112 On the Times: "Nothing is better than the knowledge of God, because nothing is more blessed, and it is itself true blessedness. Hence the Savior also says to the Father: This is eternal life, that they may know You, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." And to the same effect Jerome on Jeremiah ch. XXXI: "The knowledge of the one God, he says, is the possession of all virtues." And again: "The memory of God excludes all wickedness."
Lactantius excellently puts it in Book I of the Divine Institutes, ch. VIII: "Plato in the Timaeus says that the power and majesty of God is so great that no one can either conceive it with the mind or set it forth in words, on account of His excessive and inestimable might." Finally, St. Bernard, sermon 57 on the Canticle: "What, he says, if you do not know God, can there be any hope of salvation with ignorance of God? Not even this. For you can neither love what you do not know, nor possess Him whom you have not loved. Know therefore yourself, that you may fear God; know Him, that you may equally love Him: in the one you are initiated into wisdom, in the other you are also perfected; for the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, and the fullness of the law is charity. Both kinds of ignorance therefore must be avoided by you, just as without the fear and love of God there can be no salvation."
Verse 21: Little Children, Keep Yourselves from Idols
21. LITTLE CHILDREN, KEEP YOURSELVES FROM IDOLS. AMEN. — that is, so be it, do thus altogether, and keep yourselves. St. John gives this final admonition because in that age this was most dangerous, and therefore most necessary to warn against. For at that time the whole world was set in the evil one — namely in idolatry — and so Christians, recently converted from it, had to be constantly among Gentile and idolatrous parents and friends, and to dine and feast with them, where they would set out idol-offerings (that is, things sacrificed to idols) as though sacred food, about which I have spoken on 1 Corinthians VIII. Lest therefore by their example and exhortation they should slip back into the idols which they had recently abandoned, St. John zealously gives this final admonition, so as to fix it more firmly in their mind and memory — namely, that they should zealously abstain from all commerce with idols and from eating idol-offerings. So Didymus, Œcumenius, Lyranus, and Cajetan. Wrongly do Beza and the heretics translate it, "keep yourselves from images." For an image is a likeness of a true thing; but a simulacrum or idol is a likeness of a false thing — namely of a false deity. For thus do Scripture and the holy Fathers distinguish all these terms. Granted, Cicero in Book I On the Ends does call images "idola": "images, he says, which are named idola." Hence εἴδωλον is a diminutive from εἶδος, that is, "form" — meaning a little form, an imperfect, diminished form, falling short of the character of true form. So Tertullian, On Idolatry, ch. III, and Isidore, Etymologies VIII, last ch. Hence Plato in the Theaetetus calls idols lies, and St. Jerome on Hosea ch. VII says that a simulacrum is opposed to God just as falsehood is to truth. So also St. Augustine on Psalm CXXXV; Clement of Alexandria, Stromata VI; Origen, homily 8 on Exodus; Theodoret, Question XXXVIII on Exodus. Therefore the Eighth Ecumenical Synod, in acts 3 and 7, lays anathema upon those who assert that the images of Christ and of the saints are idols.
Mystically, the simulacra of human imagination are perverse doctrines, heresies, vain fantasies, avarice, the desires of honor, money, pleasure; let the faithful keep themselves from these and beware of them: so Bede, Hugh, Dionysius, Cajetan, and others.
Furthermore, St. John says, "Keep yourselves," and not, "destroy the simulacra," because this would have stirred up the fury of the Gentiles against all Christians. Hence St. Augustine warns that idols must first be destroyed in the hearts of men, and only afterwards in the shrines and on the altars of temples: so he himself in epistles 154 and 150, and sermon 6 On the Words of the Lord, where he also adds that those are not to be reckoned martyrs who are killed because they have destroyed idols (the same was decreed by the Council of Elvira, canon 60) — understand: rashly and imprudently and with scandal. For those who, prudently, from greatness of soul or by divine inspiration, did this for the confusion of the Gentiles and the confirmation of the faithful, are held as martyrs — such as St. Theodore, St. Barbara, St. Christina, and many others. For the more learned and wise of the Gentiles, in venerating idols, used to excuse themselves with this seemingly plausible reasoning: that they said they were worshiping in the idols not the stones or metals, but the gods; for these, they said, dwelt in the idols as in shrines or as in their own bodies, just as the soul dwells in the body. Hence St. Augustine, conclusion 2 on Psalm CXIII, says of idols: "They do not think them to be without some living inhabitant." And Olympius the Sophist, in Sozomen, Book III of the History, ch. XV: "The simulacra, he said, were of matter subject to corruption, and therefore could be broken; but the heavenly powers which were in them have flown back to heaven." But they erred: first, in supposing the idols had something of divinity, had something of a deity in them, and that God was bound to them and was represented in them to the life. Secondly, in worshiping in them many and various gods. Thirdly, because their gods were demons: for these gave responses through the idols.
"Keep yourselves therefore from the simulacra," so that you do not sculpt, paint, or polish them; do not uncover your head before them, kneel to them, or render them any honor; do not swear by them; do not eat what is sacrificed to them; do not render them any office or service; do not bring them victims, incense, wine, or gifts; do not be their aediles, curators, or guardians; do not sing their praises, nor celebrate them in verse or prose. Therefore the faithful had to keep themselves from these things and beware of them with great vigilance and circumspection in every place, lest amid so many rites and ceremonies of idolaters they should seem in any way to consent to them and to cooperate with them, and so be defiled. Lastly, by these words St. John strikes and refutes the heresy of Elxai, who arose toward the end of St. John's life — as I have shown on verses 7 and 8 — and taught, among other things, that "it was not a sin, even if it should happen that they themselves adore the simulacra at a time of imminent persecution, provided they do not adore them in conscience, and even if they confess something with the mouth but not with the heart." And that fraudulent impostor does not blush to bring forward as a witness for this a certain priest Phinees, of the line of Levi and Aaron, and of the ancient Phinees, who in Babylon at the time of the Captivity is said to have adored Diana, and at Susa to have escaped the destruction of death before King Darius. Wherefore all his accounts are false and empty, says Epiphanius in heresy 19. And he adds that this is signified in Hebrew by the name Elxai: for Elxai means hypocrisy and hypocrite. "They imagine, he says, that this man (Elxai) is called the veiled power, because El is called 'power' and Xai 'veiled and hidden,'" — because he treacherously veiled and hid his doctrines, according to that saying of his follower Priscillian: "Swear, forswear, do not betray the secret" — as St. Augustine testifies in heresy 70.
Closing Meditation: The Death of Cardinal Alexander
Let a similar swan-song close the final words and prayers of St. John — the life and death of the most illustrious and most devout Alexander Cardinal Orsini, who, in these very days while these things are being struck off the press, has been snatched out of the malignant world and has closed the last day of his present life, that he may begin the everlasting one, and enjoy his Christ in blessed and eternal life. The Romans mourn him as taken too early, and I above all. For he was the encourager and promoter of this writing of mine (just as of all good works), and so, often coming to the College, he would call me aside, and would converse with me and with our brethren for hours about it and about pious and literary matters, devoutly and learnedly. So I am rightly bound here in a few words to render him his last due, and with mourning pen to perform his funeral rites; and at the same time to transmit so illustrious an example of virtue to be celebrated and imitated by transalpine peoples and by future ages — that mortals, even princes, may learn from this stage of human mortality that death cuts down all wealth and purple, and that there is nothing solid and stable in human affairs except honorable and holy morals, which endure into every age. He was most noble in family. For the Orsini house is among the foremost and most princely of Rome, and being propagated also into other regions, it has held principality there: joined by kinship with the foremost of kings, with three Supreme Pontiffs, with very many of the cardinals, and with the bravest leaders of wars, illustrious. But he was far more noble in wisdom and virtue, and so it was not so much the family that adorned and made him illustrious as it was he who adorned and ennobled the family. He recalled St. John in his bright, cheerful, and modest countenance, gestures, actions, and morals; of innocence, chastity, modesty, humility, purity, charity, patience, mortification, penance, contempt of self and of the world, integrity, magnanimity, beneficence, and zeal — to cardinals, prelates, princes, as well as to all Christians, he was a living example and mirror. To Christ Jesus and to His Passion and Cross, as well as to the Virgin Mother of God, he was above all attached and devoted, as if a Benjamin of both. He was in the flower of his age, sanguine, full-bodied, muscular, elegant, affable, eloquent, learned, and at the same time of the most candid disposition and heart, with no division between mouth and heart, mature, grave, upright, constant: you would have called him "John," that is, "son of the Graces and of favors." Having magnanimously discharged great charges of the Church, he was born for greater things, had not God transferred him to the greatest. Brought to perfection in a short time, he fulfilled many seasons; for his soul was pleasing to God. As a young man he had earnestly demanded entrance into the Society of Jesus, and this ardently and insistently. But, having met with refusal — because they kept saying that on account of certain gifts he would be of more profit to the Church in the world — he yielded, but in such a way that he led a religious life among courtiers and princes, so that anyone observing his manners would have judged him at once a religious and a prince. In fasts, disciplines, hairshirts, even after being made cardinal, he was assiduous, indeed excessive. He desired to be enrolled in the Sodality of Confraternity erected at the Roman College, and frequented it often, even at the time of the discipline; and publicly in the crowd of the common people he would scourge himself sharply with them, and not infrequently to the point of blood — which he did continually on the vigils of the Blessed Virgin, that he might offer and consecrate himself and his life to her by his own blood. He visited hospitals, served the sick, and with his own hand offered them food along with alms, and even washed their feet. Wherefore it is well known that, by so illustrious an example of such great virtues, several heretics, struck to the heart, abjured their heresy and reconciled themselves to the Holy Roman Church. Meanwhile he displayed a gravity worthy of a prince and a cardinal. Magnificent among the powerful, munificent among the needy, cautious and provident in counsels, sharp and effective in deeds. In zeal he surpassed not only prelates but even religious. At Bracciano, which is a town near Rome, the seat of the Orsini Dukes, he had erected a Sodality from his own subjects and courtiers, modeled on the one seen at the Roman College, in which he himself acted as prefect, preacher, leader of the discipline, and standard-bearer of the rest of the offices of piety. On his bare breast he wore a bronze figure of Christ hanging from the cross, with little nails projecting from it that pricked the flesh, which therefore not infrequently drew blood from him and stained his shirt; and he was wont, by turns, with his hand placed against his breast (as I have often seen), to press the cross more tightly to himself, that he might press the crucified Christ more inwardly into himself with greater love and likewise greater grief. He published an Office of the Passion and of the Cross, evidence both of an elegant talent and of his ardent piety and devotion towards it. He had adorned a worthy work (about which he often spoke with me), On the Kingdom, filled with all the erudition of divine and human law, an outline of which he left distributed through individual parts and chapters, prefixing for each chapter the topic to be discussed from the sacred history of the first Four Books of Kings. At Bracciano, on a certain hill almost like a hermit's retreat, marked with the mysteries of the Passion of Christ (similar to the one which Blessed Charles Borromeo would frequently visit not far from Milan), he was preparing it, that by turns he might withdraw there and devote himself wholly to Christ and to himself. While he was meditating these and greater things, an untimely but not unforeseen death overtook him. On the Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin (which fell this year on a Saturday) he began to be ill, on its Octave he ended, and ceased to live. On the vigil of the feast, in addition to the ordinary exercises of devotion that had been performed, he had given an exhortation in the Sodality to his companions more ardent than usual, and afterwards, according to custom, with his own — indeed beyond his own — had sharply scourged himself. For he was wont, as I said, on that day to draw blood, which he would give and dedicate to the Blessed Virgin. Wherefore, although the cause of the disease had long been gathering, because bile had taken hold of the substance of his limbs, yet, since it was hidden by his bright countenance and most peaceful demeanor, it did not appear. From these labors and ardors, however, some occasion may have been afforded for the diseased matter to be more violently kindled, so that it brought on a fever sooner than he had prepared for; which fever was able to be soothed for a time by medicines but could not be conquered, but on the seventh day took him from mortal men. He was accustomed daily to cleanse his conscience by sacramental confession, and afterwards to celebrate the sacrifice of the Mass devoutly, and for that reason always kept a confessor at hand. But as soon as he felt the disease, he immediately summoned to himself from the Roman College the confessor (whom he had chosen at Rome from our Society as the director of his soul), and along with him the Prefect of the Sodality; and as they hastened to him, "This man, he said, will lead me into Purgatory, this other from Purgatory to Paradise — through the prayers, vows, and voluntary penances of his fervent Sodalists." Confession finished, he received the holy Communion prostrate on the ground, with such marks of reverence and piety as struck and pierced all those present with the deepest feeling of devotion. As the disease grew worse, having spoken devoutly with his confessor about death, he resigned his life and his whole self to God, saying with the Apostle: "Whether we live, we live to the Lord; whether we die, we die to the Lord: whether therefore we live or die, we are the Lord's." He added, however, that if the choice of death and life were given to him, he would prefer death. When asked the reason, he said: "That I may sooner enjoy God" — "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." "Come therefore, Lord Jesus, come, my beloved." Soon he ordered to have recited to him the psalm: "How lovely are Your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! my soul longs and faints in the courts of the Lord." As he was sinking towards death, he called aside his firstborn brother, the Duke of Bracciano, and, with all others removed: "Receive, he said, my brother, the last words of your brother who is departing and journeying to another life." The rest could not be heard by those at a distance; but that they were not inflated but inflaming, the subsequent acts and deeds of the Duke afterwards showed. From the immense heat of the fever he fell into delirium, yet to pious words he responded fittingly and with great feeling of soul: indeed, restored to himself for a brief time, arming himself for the final agony, he received the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, devoutly responding to each of the prayers. In this wandering delirium of mind, no unbecoming or unfitting word escaped him; but from his former habit of piety, everything breathed zeal for the propagation of the faith, of peace, and of charity. The Supreme Pontiff, in his affection and munificence toward him, imparted to him his blessing through a messenger, and freely and liberally granted many other things. As he was dying he showed no agony or struggle, but as if worn out by old age, with his strength dissolved, peacefully and devoutly he resigned his soul to his Creator and Redeemer, while all who were present wept in their devotion. He died at about 33 years of age, which was the age of Christ the Lord. After death, when his body had been opened by the physicians, it appeared duly composed, but his heart was empty of all moisture (since he had exhausted or sweated it out by fervent acts of piety), and yellow bile was dispersed throughout the whole body; which incurable malady brought him to death. His heart, brought to Rome, was buried in the tomb of Cardinal Bellarmine, since he had revered and loved him in life as a father and guide of Christian and holy living: for with him and through him he had been instructed in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, the founder of the Society of Jesus, and constantly directed his eyes and mind upon him as a rare exemplar of wisdom, piety, and virtue. These few things, out of many, I have written not so much for your benefit as for that of posterity, Most Illustrious Cardinal. For you despise human praises, being honored with divine ones. Dead to the world, you live in heaven; dead to the age, you enjoy Christ, whom from boyhood through all your life you loved with all your mind. You have fought the good fight, you have finished the course, you have kept the faith; now from the just Judge you receive the crown of justice laid up for you. For your works follow you. You have lived, not for time, but for eternity. Therefore through the mountains of eternity you follow the Lamb. Now you are satisfied, because fasting you have hungered, and you joyfully sing: "As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of the Lord of hosts." O blessed exchange of things! You have mourned and wept, that you might always laugh; you despised the fleeting and shadowy pomps, riches, and dignities of this life, and although flowing in them, yet you never gave your heart to them, that you might possess heavenly, true, and perpetual things. You afflicted the flesh, that you might present it unstained to Christ. You were clothed in a hairshirt, that you might be adorned in white garments and rejoice: "You have torn off my sackcloth, and have surrounded me with gladness." You despised delicacies, that you might forever feed on the bread of angels, and say: "Taste and see how sweet the Lord is." You emulated the first and holy cardinals of the Roman Church, made purple-clad with their own blood for Christ — St. Lawrence, Cyriacus, Largus, Smaragdus, etc. — and you expressed in your conduct their piety, fervor, patience, constancy, and zeal; and in the blood of the Lamb you have washed and dyed red, indeed whitened, the robe of your flesh: therefore you are now crowned and receive the palm, and are clothed with the robe of glory, and sit in the heavenly senate of those clothed in purple. The glory of your name shall live, the glory of your virtue shall live, as long as the eternity of all ages shall live. From on high look down upon us in this valley of tears, indeed in this stormy sea, struggling with so many destructive pirates and likewise with the waves; that with Christ as our guide, by the star of the sea — I mean the Blessed Virgin Mother of God — as our compass, we may sail through unharmed with the merchandise of our soul safe, and may put in to the port of salvation with the favoring winds of inspiring grace. Obtain for us that, by writing, by laboring, by suffering, we may ever bear about with you the mortification of Jesus in our body; that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our bodies, that in heaven we may be granted the laurel of Doctors and Martyrs, and crowned with laurel may sing to God and to the Lamb the everlasting song: "Blessing, and brightness, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honor, power, and might be to our God forever and ever; for You have redeemed us in Your blood, and have made us a kingdom and priests for our God, and we shall reign upon the earth. Amen."