Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis
The argument of the Epistle is: He praises the Elect Lady and her family for their faith and charity; he exhorts that she remain in it, and therefore that she beware of the heresies and heretics then arising, as Antichrists, so much so that she should not even say Ave (greet) to them. Serarius judges that this Epistle was written by John at Ephesus, and sent from there. For at Ephesus, as the metropolis of Asia, St. John, on returning from exile and now nearly worn out by old age, was accustomed to reside.
Vulgate Text: 2 John 1-13
1 The ancient to the lady Elect, and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth, 2 For the sake of the truth which dwelleth in us, and shall be with us for ever. 3 Grace be with you, mercy, and peace from God the Father, and from Christ Jesus the Son of the Father; in truth and charity. 4 I was exceeding glad, that I found of thy children walking in truth, as we have received a commandment from the Father. 5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as writing a new commandment to thee, but that which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. 6 And this is charity, that we walk according to His commandments. For this is the commandment, that, as you have heard from the beginning, you should walk in the same: 7 For many seducers are gone out into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh: this is a seducer and an antichrist. 8 Look to yourselves, that you lose not the things which you have wrought: but that you may receive a full reward. 9 Whosoever revolteth, and continueth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that continueth in the doctrine, the same hath both the Father and the Son. 10 If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him, God speed you. 11 For he that saith unto him, God speed you, communicateth with his wicked works. 12 Having more things to write unto you, I would not by paper and ink: for I hope that I shall be with you, and speak face to face: that your joy may be full. 13 The children of thy sister Elect salute thee.
Verse 1: The Elder to the Elect Lady
ELDER (SENIOR), — πρεσβύτερος, that is, Presbyter and elderly man, that is, the senior of all; for the positive is here put for the comparative and superlative, because St. John, the sole survivor among all the Apostles, surpassed all the Bishops both in age and in dignity. "An elder, then, to whom belonged a certain swan-like grace of old age," says St. Ambrose on Psalm xxxvi, 25. Hence "senior" is the same as "lord," that is, Prelate, Bishop, Apostle. For from Senior is derived the Italian Signore, the Spanish Señor, the French Seigneur; for that Joachim Perionius derives them from the Greek κύριος, in his tract De Linguæ Gallicæ cum Græca cognatione, seems far-fetched and forced. Whence Oecumenius: "John," he says, "declares by the name Presbyter that he is a Bishop."
TO THE ELECT (ELECTÆ). — Our Serarius, following Oecumenius, attempts by eight conjectures to prove that by "Elect" is not signified a particular person and matron, but some Church of Asia. For the elect Church is the spouse of God, according to that of Canticles VI, 9: "Beautiful as the moon, elect as the sun;" and St. Peter, in his first epistle, ch. v, v. 13, calls the Church in Babylon co-elect. Serarius further thinks that this Church was one of the seven of Asia, which St. John had founded and which he admonishes and teaches in Apocalypse, ch. I and II; or certainly it was the Church of Corinth, since in it dwelt Gaius the host of St. Paul, as gathered from Romans xvi, 23 and 1 Corinthians I, 14. For this second Epistle seems to have been sent together with the third, and to that Church in which Gaius was, to whom he inscribes the third. Moreover this Church is called κυρία, that is "lady," either on account of the nobility of the place, or on account of the excellence of virtue; or it is called κυρία, that is most chosen, lawful, lawfully gathered, which in Acts ch. xix, v. 39, is called ἔννομος: for κυρία also signifies this, on the testimony of Laertius in his life of Zeno.
But, to omit other things, this opinion is opposed by what St. John writes in his third epistle to Gaius, 9: "I would perhaps have written to the Church, but he who loves to hold the primacy among them, Diotrephes, does not receive us;" by which he signifies that he wrote no Epistle to the Church in which Gaius was. Again, it is unusual to inscribe a letter to some Church as "to the Elect Lady," especially since many — indeed all — Churches are elect; for letters are usually written to specific persons or to Churches, lest they wander into uncertainty, or be carried to strangers to whom they do not pertain: wherefore the inscription must be distinct and clear. Therefore others everywhere judge that this is written to a particular matron: for this is the meaning of τῇ Electæ dominæ. But why does he call her "Elect?" Many think that "Elect" is here a common noun, not a proper one, and that in various senses: first, some say, Elect means faithful and Christian; for Christians, called by God out of paganism and chosen unto faith, grace, and glory, were called Elect, according to that of Christ: "I have chosen you out of the world," John xv, 19; and that of Paul: "As He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and immaculate in His sight in charity," Ephes. I, 4, etc. "Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election," 1 Thessalon. I, 4. So St. Peter, 1 epist. I, v. 11, writes "to the elect strangers of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia," etc.; and ch. II, v. 4: "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation." So Christ is called "God's chosen one," Luke xxiii, 33; Isaiah xlii, 1.
Second, others judge that this is an epithet of virtue, as if to say Elect, that is, distinguished, endowed with notable wisdom and virtue. So in Ecclesiastes I, 16, it is said of wisdom: "She walks with the elect women."
Third, others judge that St. John had a revelation about this matron, that she was placed by God in the number of the predestined and the elect, and signified this by the name "Elect." But who would believe that St. John, if he had this revelation, would not have wished to disclose it not only to her, but to the whole world?
But others judge better that "Elect" is a proper noun, or at least one specially applied. For Epistles are normally inscribed to definite persons, by naming them with a proper name, lest they be vague, or be carried to strangers. Hence also ἡ Ἐκλεκτή, that is Electæ, has no article, as if a proper name. For if it were a common noun, it should have been said with the article τῇ Ἐκλεκτῇ, as he does say in the last verse.
Hence again "Elect" is everywhere written with a capital letter, as if a proper name; for just as many faithful, by adopting common names for themselves, made them proper, so that they are called Justus, Justa, Fortunatus, Felix, Christianus, Christiana, Christina, Pretiosus, Exuperius, Exuperantia, etc., so this woman too was called Electa, even though "elect" was a name common to all Christians. I have said that this name is either proper or specially applied, because it could be that the faithful applied this name to her on account of her exceptional virtue and uprightness, especially because she was instructing her daughters in the culture of virginity, and had a religious household, as I shall presently show — just as the Manichaeans called the eminent men in their sect "Elect," as St. Augustine testifies in De Hæresibus, heresy 46. Thus, then, "Elect" means the same as "distinguished," pre-eminent in nobility and virtue, so as to correspond to the Hebrew — to have propagated their heresies, as St. Jerome teaches in his epistle to Ctesiphon. St. John insinuates this in v. 10, where He sternly commands that she neither say Ave (greet) them nor receive them into her house.
He alludes to a most beautiful Hebrew paronomasia, which goes thus: לבחירה גבירא libechira gebira, that is, "to the Elect Lady." In a similar way St. Jerome, instructing the noble Roman matrons by word and writing, not only educated them, but through them brought a great part of the Roman nobility to Christian perfection, and so drew them into his Bethlehem to the monasteries of St. Paula and Eustochium. He himself answers thus to those who slandered this pious commerce of his with women, in epist. 140 to Principia: "If men," he says, "inquired about the Scriptures, I would not speak with women. If Barak had wished to go to battle, Deborah would not have triumphed once the enemies were conquered. Jeremiah is shut up in prison, and because Israel, about to perish, had not received a man as prophet, the woman Huldah is raised up for them. The priests and Pharisees crucify the Son of God, and Mary Magdalene weeps at the cross, prepares ointments, seeks Him in the tomb, questions the gardener, recognizes the Lord, hastens to the Apostles, announces that He is found; they doubt, she trusts. Truly πυργίτης, truly the tower of whiteness and of Lebanon which looks toward the face of Damascus — that is, she sees the blood of the Savior provoking us to do penance. Sarah's womanly powers had failed, and therefore Abraham is made subject to her, and it is said to him: Whatever Sarah says to you, hear her voice." But this very thing is not to be imitated by anyone whatsoever, and is plainly to be avoided by the younger, lest carnality (or at least its suspicion and danger) substitute itself for charity, so that flame should follow from smoke. See St. Cyprian, De Singularitate Clericorum.
AND TO HER SONS (ET NATIS EJUS). — Clement of Alexandria testifies that these sons (or daughters) of Electa were virgins, who says that this Epistle was written to virgins, whence too, by John the virgin, his beloved virgins are here courteously greeted. It seems then that Electa educated her daughters and advanced them to virginity and sanctity, so that her house seemed to be a parthenon, or monastery of virgins, as was the house and court of St. Pulcheria, daughter of Theodosius and an empress, on whom see our Rader's Aula sancta. Thus in the age of St. John, Philip the Deacon offered four virgin daughters to God, Acts xxi, 9; St. Matthew offered Iphigenia; St. Clement offered Flavia Domitilla and her companions. Hence those eulogies of virginity and of the early virgins in Philo, De Vita contemplativa, where he relates wonders about the continence of the Essenes under St. Mark; and in St. Dionysius, De Eccles. Hierarch., ch. vi, part II; in St. Ignatius, epistle to the Antiochenes and to the Tarsians; indeed in St. Paul, 1 Corinthians vii, 37, and in Christ, Matthew xix, 12.
WHOM I LOVE IN TRUTH (QUOS EGO DILIGO IN VERITATE), — with a true, that is, sincere, chaste, Christian, efficacious and active love. "In truth," therefore, is the same as "in Christian charity;" whence Dionysius the Carthusian gathers from this passage that St. John knew by divine inspiration that he himself was in the grace and perfect charity of God: which I indeed believe to be true, but it cannot be proved from this passage. Finally, "in truth," that is, in the Evangelical law and doctrine, which alone is the law of truth and of true charity. Furthermore Hugo says, "in truth" here means "in the Lord," who is truth; whence he adds:
AND NOT I ONLY, BUT ALSO ALL WHO HAVE KNOWN THE TRUTH (ET NON EGO SOLUS, SED ET OMNES QUI COGNOVERUNT VERITATEM). — "This common love removes the suspicion of private love, and makes greater authority," says the Interlinear Gloss. The sense is, as if to say: All Christians who have known the truth — namely the true God, the true Christ, the true faith and law, true virtue, true purity and holiness — these love them, because they see them to excel in truth, that is, in the true and pure faith, chastity, and virtue of Christ.
Verse 2: For the Truth Which Abides in Us
2. FOR THE TRUTH WHICH ABIDES IN US, AND SHALL BE WITH US FOREVER. — He refers this to "I love in truth," not to "have known," as if to say: I love them in truth, because they themselves constantly adhere to the truth, that is, to the true Evangelical faith, chastity, and charity, which abides in us through this whole life, and shall abide through the whole future and eternal life in heavenly glory. By truth, therefore, take the true faith, the true Gospel, the true doctrine, which abides and shall abide inviolate, firm, and stable through all eternity. Second, Oecumenius understands by truth a true charity — that is, firm, stable, and ever like itself — namely lest it easily grow cold, be extinguished, or be changed. So too Dionysius the Carthusian understands by truth the true charity by which Electa, together with her children, came to the aid of the needs of the faithful, and on that account asserts that she was so greatly loved by John. For St. John seems to allude to that passage of his first epistle, ch. III, v. 18: "My little children, let us not love in word nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth." Truth, therefore, is efficacious, and is true charity, which is followed by dear eternity and eternal happiness. The sense is, as if He said: I love them for the sake of the truth, because they live according to the truth of the Gospel; they conform all their conduct to it as to a rule of living, and express it in their actions. Third, some take truth as Christ; for He Himself is the way, the truth, and the life. Again, He Himself is the parent, herald, and object of the Gospel, or of evangelical truth: for whoever says Gospel says Christ, as if to say: I love you for the sake of Christ, who abides in us through faith and love, and shall abide through fruition forever.
Verse 3: Grace, Mercy, and Peace
3. GRACE, MERCY, AND PEACE BE WITH YOU. — Concerning this salutation I have spoken at the beginning of St. Paul's epistles to Titus, to the Romans, to the Corinthians, etc. He adds "mercy," or, as the Syriac has it, the compassions of grace, so that through that mercy which they have received from God through Christ, and were daily receiving, He may urge the Elect Lady and her children to show similar mercy to their neighbors, namely to the poor Christians, by relieving their indigence; for all men, however holy, are wretched and infirm, and often either fall, or are in danger of falling: they need God's mercy continually, so that the fallen may rise again, and those about to fall may be sustained and strengthened.
FROM GOD THE FATHER AND FROM CHRIST JESUS THE SON OF THE FATHER. — Under these two Persons understand the third, namely the Holy Spirit; for the necessary spirative principle of Him is the Father and the Son: so Lyranus.
IN TRUTH AND CHARITY. — Understand, that you may persevere, or, that you may grow, as if to say: May grace, etc., be with you, that you may grow and continually advance in charity and truth, that is, in the true knowledge, savor, and taste of God and of divine and heavenly goods. Hugo and Cajetan interpret it differently. For they refer these to the Son, as if to say: The Son is the beloved of the Father, or is loved by the Father in charity and truth. Or, as if to say: May the Son, on account of that truth and charity which He brought into the world, and with which He pursues you and His faithful, grant you grace and peace.
Catharinus also interprets it differently, as if to say: The grace, mercy, and peace which I implore for you consist in truth, that is, in true doctrine and faith and charity, in that you sincerely love one another for God's sake. For in these two things consists the perfection of the Christian and of Christianity. This sense is very fitting, as well as easy and obvious: for it understands nothing implicit, supplies nothing. Moreover truth illumines the mind, charity inflames the will; wherefore St. John inculcates almost nothing else than these two things in these Epistles.
Symbolically Lyranus: "in charity," he says, that is, in the Holy Spirit; for love and charity are appropriated to Him.
Moreover, with skill St. John by this salutation, as by a prologue, intimates and summarily embraces the argument of the whole Epistle. For thereafter he commends charity, that we may love one another, down to verse 7; from there to the end he inculcates the truth of the Gospel, that they persist in it, and not lend ear or tongue to heretics, indeed not even say Ave to them.
Verse 4: I Rejoiced Greatly, Walking in Truth
4. I REJOICED GREATLY, BECAUSE I HAVE FOUND OF THY CHILDREN, — that is, thy children. It is a Hebraism. Similar is Psalm LXXI, verse 16: "There shall be given Him of the gold (that is, the gold) of Arabia, and they shall adore of Him," that is, Him; and Isaiah II, 3: "He will teach you of His ways," that is, His ways.
It seems the Elect Lady had several sons, or had grandsons by them. For these too are reckoned under the name of sons. Some understand the sons not of the flesh, but of the spirit, namely those whom the Elect Lady was nourishing and promoting in piety and virtue; but the former interpretation which I gave is the genuine one.
WALKING IN TRUTH, — ordering their life according to the rule of the Gospel. Note: He does not say standing or sitting, but walking, to signify that they had advanced day by day in Christian morals and had gone from virtue to virtue, and to set them before us as an example to be imitated in this. "For as much as anyone works in virtue," says Oecumenius, "so much the further he advances, and acquires a more perfect habit of integrity, since the way of virtue is infinite and never failing." St. Ambrose gives a stimulus to walking: "Thy time," he says, "walks on, and dost thou sleep?" as if to say: A great way remains for thee from earth to the empyrean heaven, the journey is of many millions of miles, the time of walking for thee is brief and swift; for it walks, indeed flies: why then, while time walks, indeed flies, dost thou not walk and fly to heaven? See this under a shadow in Seneca, epistle 73, where he says, "all other things must be neglected, that we may apply ourselves to this, for which no length of time is great enough, even if life be prolonged from childhood to the longest limits of human life." Wherefore the same author in De Vita Beata, chap. xvii, advises that "daily something must be taken away from one's vices, and one's errors must be rebuked."
AS WE HAVE RECEIVED COMMANDMENT FROM THE FATHER. — He names the Father rather than the Son, because it belongs to the father to command his children, according to that of Malachi I, 6: "The son honors the father, and the servant his lord. If then I am a Father, where is My honor? and if I am a Lord, where is My fear?" Moreover the Father commanded through the Son, whom He therefore sent into the world, according to that of Christ, John xv, verse 15: "All things whatsoever I have heard from My Father, I have made known to you." Others by the Father understand Christ, who is "the Father of the world to come," Isaiah ix, 6: for which Galatinus, in book III of De Arcanis Catholicis, chap. xxi, reads: "the everlasting Father;" and who says: "Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given Me," Isaiah viii, 18. So Lyranus, Hugo, and Thomas Anglicus. But the former sense is simpler; for a little before St. John distinguished Christ from the Father.
Verse 5: And Now I Beseech Thee, Lady
5. AND NOW I BESEECH THEE, LADY. — He refers this to the end of the verse: "That we love one another;" for thus the suspended sentence is completed, as if to say: I beseech thee, lady, that thou exercise thyself and thine in mutual love; for this commandment of love is not recent and new, but from the beginning of the Gospel and of Christianity has been promulgated by Christ, by me, and by the other Apostles, and continually commended. Note the modesty of St. John, to be imitated by Prelates, in that he says: "I beseech thee, lady," when he could have said: "I command thee, O daughter;" concerning which see St. Gregory, in book XIII of the Moralia, chap. III; St. Bernard, sermon 23 on the Canticle, and St. Bonaventure De Sex Alis Seraphim, chap. IV, V, VII. Concerning the new and old commandment of love I have spoken in epistle I, chap. II, verse 7.
Verse 6: And This Is Charity
6. AND THIS IS CHARITY, THAT WE WALK ACCORDING TO HIS COMMANDMENTS. — The Greek and Syriac have, His commandment, namely of love, already mentioned, as if to say: In this is discerned, in this consists charity, namely in the observance of God's commandments. For these commandments are nothing else than commandments of charity and love, both of God, as are the first three of the Decalogue, and of neighbor, which I have already inculcated and do inculcate, as are the last seven of the Decalogue.
FOR THIS IS THE COMMANDMENT (namely of charity and love already spoken of, and more often, indeed always inculcated by me), THAT AS YOU HAVE HEARD FROM THE BEGINNING, YOU WALK IN IT, — namely that you continually advance in evangelical truth and charity, growing and progressing in the faith and love of God and of neighbor, which at the beginning of my preaching I inculcated upon you, nor allow yourselves in any way to be led away from these by anyone.
Verse 7: Many Seducers Have Gone Out
7. FOR MANY SEDUCERS HAVE GONE OUT INTO THE WORLD. — He passes to the other head of the Epistle, namely from charity to evangelical truth; for these virtues are inseparable companions and sisters: for the truth of the Gospel teaches and produces charity. Moreover the "for" gives the cause of what was said in the preceding verse, as if to say: I said that you should constantly walk, that is, remain and advance, in the commandment of evangelical truth and charity, which I delivered to you from the beginning; because many seducers have gone out into the world, who try to overturn this truth, and consequently Christian charity, and snatch them from you; from whom therefore as from wolves, indeed Antichrists, you ought to beware: for they themselves strive to seduce you from Christ and from the union of Christians, to their satanic conventicles: so Oecumenius.
TO HAVE COME. — In Greek ἐρχόμενον, that is coming, that is, as the Zurich Bible has it, about to come, namely from of old, from the time of the Prophets, who foretold He would come. Our Latin translates better, to have come: for Christ had already come, unless one with Cajetan refers it to Christ's future coming in judgment: for the heretics of that age denied this, as I said on II Peter III, 4.
THIS IS A SEDUCER AND ANTICHRIST. — As if to say: Whoever thinks thus, whoever teaches thus, namely that Christ did not come in the flesh, nor was incarnate, this man is an impostor, indeed Antichrist. He repeats and inculcates what was said in epistle I, chap. IV, verse 3.
Verse 8: Look to Yourselves
8. LOOK TO YOURSELVES. — Vatablus: Behold, scrutinize, examine "yourselves;" the Zurich Bible: "beware for yourselves;" the Syriac according to Serarius: "guard yourselves in your soul." Excellently Philo Carpathius on the last chapter of the Canticle: "Nothing," he says, "is more useful, nothing more praiseworthy, nothing more holy, than to descend into oneself, and, when one can, to direct oneself and one's own life and that of one's neighbor toward integrity."
THAT YOU LOSE NOT THE THINGS WHICH YOU HAVE WROUGHT. — The Greek reads this in the first person, ἵνα μὴ ἀπολέσωμεν ἃ εἰργασάμεθα, that is, that we lose not what we have wrought, as if to say: Lest I have preached to you in vain, which would surely happen, if you allowed yourselves to be drawn by heretics from the Christian truth and charity to heresy: for both I and you all would lose our former labor. Moreover, as the old saying has it: "There is no greater unhappiness than to remember that one was once happy."
BUT THAT YOU MAY RECEIVE A FULL REWARD. — For constancy and perseverance in the faith and charity of Christ will indeed bring this to you; for this will deserve and actually bring a complete, adequate, and full reward both for past and present and future good works. Again "full," that is, copious and abundant, as I have shown elsewhere. For he who apostatizes, even if he afterwards repents, will receive only a half-full and halved reward, because he has lost all the time and all the works which he performed in apostasy. The Greek again has in the present tense ἀπολάβωμεν, that is, that we may receive a full reward; for full is the reward of the Apostle and teacher, when he sees the fruit of his works in his disciples; and when, receiving recompense not only in himself, but also in his disciples, he is honored and crowned. Hence St. Paul says, Philippians IV, 1: "Therefore, my dearly beloved and most desired brethren, my joy and my crown, so stand fast in the Lord, dearly beloved;" and to the Thessalonians, epistle I, chap. II, verse 19: "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of glory? Are not you, before our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming? for you are our glory and joy."
Verse 9: He Who Abides in the Doctrine
9. EVERYONE WHO WITHDRAWS. — Wrongly Lyranus and Hugo read "who goes before," as if to say: He who first walks well, but afterwards walks badly and withdraws — wrongly, I say: for in Greek it is παραβαίνων, that is, he who transgresses, violates, withdraws; the Syriac: he who passes over and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ, does not have God as friend, father, guardian, provider through faith, hope, and charity.
HE WHO ABIDES IN THE DOCTRINE, HE HAS BOTH THE FATHER AND THE SON, — and consequently the Holy Spirit, who is the love and bond of the Father and the Son. Such a one therefore is a temple of the Most Holy Trinity, as Christ teaches, John xiv, 23, and Paul, I Corinthians vi, 19. St. John repeats and inculcates what he wrote in epistle I, chap. II, verse 24. See what was said there.
Verse 10: If Any Man Bring Not This Doctrine
10. IF ANY MAN COME TO YOU, AND BRING NOT THIS DOCTRINE, RECEIVE HIM NOT INTO THE HOUSE, NOR SAY TO HIM AVE. — St. John not only counsels, as some opine, but also commands, that the Elect Lady and any faithful person should not receive into hospitality nor say Ave to a heretic, who "does not bring this doctrine," that is, who brings another, and one contrary to Christ and the orthodox faith (it is meiosis); for he is speaking properly of dogmatizing heretics, who used to creep into the houses of noble and powerful matrons, in order to teach and spread their heresies secretly. Hence he adds the reason for the precept, saying:
"For he who says to him Ave, communicates with his malignant works;" because, namely, by greeting a dogmatizing heretic, one seems to favor and applaud his dogma and heresy, and to foster and promote it by one's authority, favor, hospitality, resources. For just as one who receives into his house a thief who plies the trade of stealing is reckoned to cooperate with his thefts, and is therefore punished by the laws as a receiver of thieves, because he gives the thief a place of refuge and concealment. And he who lets out his house to a harlot for her to ply harlotry is reckoned to cooperate with her harlotry, says Navarrus in his Manual, chap. xvii, no. 193. So he who receives into hospitality a heretic coming into the city in order to dogmatize there and spread heresy, is reckoned to cooperate with the propagation of his doctrine and heresy. St. John here forbids all conversation, all consorting, all commerce with heretics: for this is more than "Ave."
Note: heretics are to be fled not only by human and canon law, which the Pontiffs and Councils established after St. John, but also by divine and natural law, in three cases. The first is, when there is danger that thou or thine be perverted by them, which ordinarily is wont to be present. "For their speech spreads like a cancer," says St. Paul, II Timothy II, 17.
The second, when by receiving him, thou seemest to favor his heresy, and to profess or aid it tacitly, e.g. if thou receive into thy house and at thy table a known Calvinist minister, who comes for this very reason, that he may propagate his heresy; if thou be present at his sermon and Eucharistic supper; if thou communicate with him in sacred things and Sacraments.
The third, when thou givest scandal to others, so that they think thee a host and patron of heresy and of heretics, and so that they themselves are incited by thy example to do the same.
These cases excepted, communication with heretics is not forbidden by divine and natural law, especially if necessity, piety, or grave utility recommend it.
Moreover St. John demonstrated by example what he here taught by word. For having entered a bath, as soon as he saw Cerinthus in it, he rushed out of it, saying to his companions: "Let us flee quickly, lest the bath in which is Cerinthus, the adversary of truth, suddenly collapse," as Irenæus relates in book III, chap. III, and Eusebius, book III, chap. xiii; and St. Jerome adds, in the dialogue Against the Luciferians, that immediately after St. John's departure Cerinthus with his companions was crushed by the collapsing bath. St. John therefore, just as he pursued Christ and the faith of Christ with immense love, so he turned away with monstrous hatred from heretics, the sworn enemies of Christ and of the faith.
Following St. John his master, St. Polycarp the disciple, alluding to these words of St. John, in his epistle to the Philippians: "Abstaining," he says, "from scandals and from false brethren, who carry the name of the Lord in vain, who make empty men go astray: for everyone who does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, this man is Antichrist; and he who does not confess the mystery of the cross, is of the devil; and he who twists the words of the Lord to his own desires, and says there is neither resurrection nor judgment, this man is the firstborn of Satan. Wherefore leaving behind the vanities of many and false doctrines, let us return to that word which was delivered to us from the beginning." Thus St. Polycarp wrote, and thus he also did; for meeting Marcion the heretic, when asked by him whether he recognized him, "I recognize thee," he said, "as the firstborn of the devil," as Eusebius from Irenæus, book IV of the History, chap. xiii.
So also St. Ignatius, equally a disciple of St. John, in his epistle to the Trallians: "Flee," he says, "impious heresies that deny God; for they are the inventions of the devil, of the serpent the author of evils, who through a woman seduced Adam." Similar things are found in St. Clement of Rome, book VI of the Apostolic Constitutions, chap. xviii; St. Martial, epistle to the people of Toulouse; St. Irenæus, book III, chap. III; St. Hilary, book Against Auxentius; St. Cyprian, De Lapsis; St. Jerome, epistle to Demetrius; St. Chrysostom, homily On Faith, Hope, and Charity; St. Bernard, sermon 66 on the Canticle.
Thus St. Hermenegild was killed by order of his father Leovigild, king of the Goths, because he refused at Easter to receive the Eucharist from an Arian Bishop, as St. Gregory relates, book III of the Dialogues, chap. xxxi; and for this reason the Church venerates him as a martyr. John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chap. xl, narrates that the holy Abbot Cosmas, buried in the same tomb in which a heretical Bishop had been laid, was heard each night uttering these words: "Touch me not, heretic, and approach me not, enemy of God's holy Catholic Church." And in chap. clxxvii, he narrates that a Monk dwelling in the cell of Evagrius the heretic strangled himself in it with a rope thrown up. The Abbot had foretold this to him, saying: "Son, a most fierce demon dwells there, who does not allow anyone to remain there." Eusebius of Vercelli, captured by the Arians, preferred to die of hunger rather than to take food from the Arians, as his Life records.
Pope Liberius rejected the gifts which Eusebius, the legate of the Arian Emperor Constantius, was offering to St. Peter, as St. Athanasius testifies, epistle to the Solitaries.
How greatly the citizens of Samosata execrated Eunomius the heretic, so much so that boys playing ball, when the ball had by chance touched Eunomius's mule, refused to go on with their game, unless they had first expiated the ball, as if contaminated by this touch, by passing it through the flames, Theodoret narrates, book IV of the History, chap. xii, and Baronius, in the year of Christ 370. Similar things about his Alexandrians turning away from the Arians are found in St. Athanasius, epistle to the Solitaries.
St. Paphnutius, leading by the hand Maximus, Bishop of Jerusalem, who from simplicity was associating among heretics: "I will not suffer," he said, "so venerable a Bishop to sit in the chair of pestilence, and to communicate with impure heretics not even by a word." Sozomen is the witness, book II, chap. xxv.
St. Antony, when about to die, as St. Athanasius testifies in his Life, sternly enjoined his disciples: "Avoid the poisons of heretics and schismatics, and follow my hatred toward them; you yourselves know that I never had any peaceful conversation with them."
St. Martin, communicating with the Bishops of the Ithacian sect in hope of their salvation, was warned by an angel, and although he repented, thereafter he nevertheless felt a diminishment of virtue, so that he did not perform as many miracles as he was wont to before, as Sulpicius testifies, book III of the Dialogues.
Much more must the books of heretics be guarded against; for those pestilent men secretly instill their heresy, like a plague, under the appearance of elegance and wisdom, into the minds of readers. In this age the heresy of Luther and Calvin has been spread through so many kingdoms by their books; if you wish to remove it, remove their books and Ministers; you will at once have removed it, if you substitute pious and learned priests and preachers in their place. Wherefore Constantine the Great under pain of death ordered the books of the Arians to be burned: so the Tripartite History, book I, chap. xv. Theodosius decreed the same under the same penalty regarding the books of the Eunomians, Theodosian Code, book XVI, law 16. So St. Leo ordered the books of the Manichæans to be burned, as St. Prosper testifies in his Chronicle. That the Hussite heresy, which has lasted up to these times, was brought into Bohemia from the books of Wycliffe, Æneas Sylvius witnesses, De Origin. Bohem., chap. xxxvii. John Moschus, in the Spiritual Meadow, chap. xlvi, narrates that the Abbot Cyriacus was gravely rebuked through a vision by the Blessed Virgin, because he kept books of Nestorius in his bedchamber, when she said: "Hast thou my enemy within thy cell, and dost thou wish me to enter?"
NOR SAY TO HIM AVE. — The Syriac: Ye shall not say to him Ave and Vale; in Greek χαίρειν, that is ave, salve, vale. The ancient Romans said ave and salve at entering, vale at departing. Again they said ave in the morning, vale in the evening, as Suetonius testifies, in Galba, chap. IV, and Martial, book IV, epigram 79:
"Thou runnest about wandering through the whole city, nor is there any chair To which thou dost not, restless, bear thy morning Ave."
"Ave" therefore, that is rejoice: so the Syriac. Hear Festus: "Avere is nothing else than to desire; the proof is avidum and aviditas, from which is understood especially desire, since it also signifies to rejoice." So χαίρειν is the same as rejoice, be glad, exult; for gladness is the salvation and beatitude of this life, which by greeting we wish to others, according to that of Ecclesiastes III, 12: "I knew that there was no better thing than to rejoice, and to do well in his life." To a heretic therefore not Ave but Vae must be uttered, as St. Paul uttered to the impostor Elymas, Acts xiii, 10, saying: "O full of all guile and all deceit, son of the devil, enemy of all justice, thou ceasest not to pervert the right ways of the Lord. And now behold the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a time."
Verse 11: He Who Says to Him Ave
11. FOR HE WHO SAYS TO HIM AVE (the Syriac, rejoice), COMMUNICATES WITH HIS MALIGNANT WORKS. — For by greeting a dogmatizing heretic, one seems to approve his heresy, as I showed a little before, when rather, like Paul, one ought to refute and abominate it. For "malignant" Irenæus, book I, chap. xiii, reads "most wicked;" for heresiarchs and propagators of heresy contrive every guile, deceit, lust, and every crime. Some Latin codices add: "Behold, I have foretold you, that you may not be confounded in the day of the Lord." So read Lyranus, Hugo, Dionysius, and Thomas Anglicus.
Verse 12: I Hope to Speak Mouth to Mouth
12. HAVING MORE THINGS TO WRITE TO YOU, I WOULD NOT BY PAPER AND INK, — not as if I were unable to write more on account of a lack of paper and ink, but because I judge they are not to be committed to paper and ink (so the Syriac), that is, not to be written, but to be communicated face to face, as follows: either because they are secret, or because letters can perish, or fall into the hands of infidels, who wrongly interpret all our things; or because the living voice is more efficacious and more pleasing than the written; or because letters and conversations, especially with women, ought to be brief, as both St. Francises used to say, namely the Assisian and our own Xavier. Excellently also the same St. Francis of Assisi in his little work on the Ten Perfections of a true Religious assigns this as the last: "Above all," he says, "let him take care that in all his words there shine truth, goodness, and humility, because the word of man ought to begin from truth, advance in goodness, terminate in humility, and be measured by brevity, because the Lord has made an abbreviated Word upon the earth."
FOR I HOPE TO BE WITH YOU. — From this it seems that this Epistle was written and sent not to Babylon to a Babylonian woman, as Clement of Alexandria says, but to some city of Asia or Greece neighboring on Ephesus. For from there St. John, already aged and almost decrepit, could and was wont to go out to the neighboring cities of Asia for the instruction and confirmation of the faith, but not into Babylon so far away.
AND TO SPEAK MOUTH TO MOUTH. — It is a Grecism, for what the Latins say: "To speak with mouth to mouth," that is, the one present to speak to the one present; for in Greek it is στόμα πρὸς στόμα λαλῆσαι; but according to Greek usage the preposition κατά is understood, as if to say: According to mouth, that is, to speak with mouth to mouth. It is therefore a Greek antiptosis, or rather a Hebrew one: for the Hebrews, because they lack declension and cases of nouns, say פה אל פה pe el pe, that is, mouth to mouth, that is, to speak with mouth to mouth.
THAT YOUR JOY MAY BE FULL. — "Full," that is, abundant and overflowing; for the living voice of a Doctor and Apostle, especially of St. John, was going to bring far more joy, doctrine, consolation, piety, devotion than dead letters. For, as St. Jerome says to Paulinus concerning the Sacred Scriptures: "The act of the living voice has I know not what hidden energy, and poured from the author's mouth into the ears of disciples it sounds more strongly." For "your" the Greek reads ἡμῶν, that is "our." For St. John rejoiced to see, teach, and console his disciples as much as the disciples rejoiced in his sight, doctrine, and consolation. Thus St. Paul desires to see the Romans, chap. I, verse 12: "And to be comforted together," he himself says, "in you by that which is common to us both, your faith and mine."
Verse 13: The Children of Thy Elect Sister
13. THE CHILDREN OF THY ELECT SISTER GREET THEE. — Hence Oecumenius and our own Serarius contend that the word "Elect," to whom this Epistle is inscribed, is an appellative name and epithet of any particular Church. For the sense is, as if to say: Thee, O elect Church of the Corinthians, the children of thy sister greet, namely the faithful of the elect Church of the Ephesians. Others judge that these Elect were particular persons, but that they were called sisters not in flesh, but in faith and spirit, in that both were disciples of the same master, namely St. John.
But I reply first, that the word "Elect" refers to "thy," not to "sister." This appears more clearly in the Greek: "they greet thee," he says, "the children" τῆς ἀδελφῆς σου τῆς Ἐκλεκτῆς, that is "of thy sister: of thee," I say, "who art Elect," or who, as thou art so named, art also truly elect. Hence the Gothic Bible, as Mariana attests, reads: "The children of thy sister greet thee. Elect," that is, O Elect, in the vocative case.
Secondly, more plainly thou mayest refer the word "Elect" to "of sister," so that therefore the Elect Lady to whom St. John writes, verse 1, was likewise called "Elect;" for often in the same family, especially if it be ample and abounding in offspring, several sons and daughters have the same name, so that in the same family there are two Johns, two Peters, two Marys, two Margarets. I add what I indicated at the beginning of the Epistle, that the word "Elect" is not so much a proper name, as an appropriated one, because, namely, it is a name of dignity and office, which is given to and shared by several persons performing the same office. "Elect" therefore seems to have been the name of a leading matron, who supported the ministers of the Church, orphans, widows, and the poor, as a mother, who presided over the instruction and governance of the other women in the Church like a Deaconess. The sense therefore is, as if to say: O Elect, mother of the faithful in the Church, e.g. of Corinth, the children of thy sister greet thee, who likewise is Elect, mother of the faithful in the Church of Ephesus, whence I write these things. The Greek article τῆς Ἐκλεκτῆς argues this; for the Greeks are not wont to prefix an article to a proper name, but to a name of dignity and office, which is appropriated to a certain person.
These words show the courtesy, affability, and humanity of St. John, by which he greets not only in his own name, but also in the name of his nephews. Similar was it in St. Paul, as may be seen in Romans, last chapter, and at the end of his other Epistles.
Some Greek and Latin codices add: "Grace be with thee. Amen;" and the Syriac, "Grace be with you. Amen;" a salutation both worthy of St. John and frequent in St. Paul.