The Gospel of John

Who John was, we learned from the previous Evangelists, namely: he was the brother of James, the son of Zebedee, from the village of Bethsaida, the land of Galilee, a fisherman by occupation. Neither before nor after did he learn from anyone and was completely unlearned (Acts 4:13); but we know what he became when he was taught by Jesus Christ. Reclining on the breast of Wisdom itself during the Last Supper, he gained such knowledge as no one else had received. And verily he thundered from heaven and cried out from the treasuries of the Holy Spirit, not because he spoke loudly, but because he spoke of the sublime, and that his tongue was guided by the Holy Spirit.

When John received other evangelists from some Gospel believers and saw that they all spoke primarily about the incarnation of the Saviour and omitted the teaching about His Divinity, he approved and permitted these Gospels and testified to their truth and authenticity. Then, under the inspiration of Jesus Christ Himself, he proceeded to his Gospel; in it he tells something of what has already been told by others, so that they do not think that his Gospel has no connection with the Gospels of others, but he pays special attention to what they have omitted, and most of all to the theological teaching about the Saviour, as the most necessary in view of the appearance of heresies.

The other Evangelists omitted this because of the imperfection of the hearers, since the preaching had not yet been established, but John cites this teaching as well, since the faith was already growing and the believers were becoming more understanding, adding other chapters omitted by the previous Evangelists. The present Gospel was written many years after the destruction of Jerusalem.

CHAPTER I

Verse 1. In the beginning was the Word... 1 The expression at the beginning has many meanings, but here it actually means always. The word be (ην) attached to this expression made it incomprehensible. Wherever you direct your mind, it will be preceded by it, and, preceding it everywhere, it does not allow your thought to find any limit to itself. In relation to creatures, the word be signifies the past tense, and in relation to the uncreated Trinity this is denoted by the word "always" (αει). In relation to the sensible and rational creature, the expression "in the beginning be" is not used at all, because everything began to exist later, and it applies only to the blessed Trinity, because only She is not begotten or created. In the same way, the word Λογος (Word) has many meanings, but here it means the Son of God proper. The Son, as St. Gregory the Theologian says, is called the Word because He relates to the Father as the Word relates to the mind, not only because of His passionless birth, but also because He is united with the Father and because He reveals Him. All that I have heard from My Father, I have spoken unto you (John 15:15).2 Someone may also say that this is a kind of definition in relation to the defined, because the word Λογος has such a meaning. He who knows (this means the word "saw") the Son, it is said, also knows the Father (John 14:9). The Son is an expressive and convenient testimony to the nature of the Father, since every birth is the silent word of the one who begat him. Having said: in the beginning was the Word, the Evangelist showed that the Son was always there and that there was no time or age when He did not exist, because He Himself is the Creator of all times and ages. But why didn't he say, "In the beginning was the Son"? So that someone does not think of a temporary and passionate birth. For this reason, having called Him the Word, having shown that His supernatural birth was pre-eternal and impassible, and thus having destroyed in advance the obscene notions of this birth, the Evangelist further directly calls Him also the Son. And in order to show that this Word has not only always been, i.e. eternally, but also that He is inseparable and co-eternal with the Father, the Evangelist says:

Verse 1... And the Word was to God... 3 He did not say that He was in a certain place, because the Immensity is not limited to any place; nor did he say that He was in God, because on the basis of the previous one there could be a confusion of persons, but he said to God (ηρος τονΘεον), i.e. to God, that both the particularity of the Hypostases and the indivisibility of the Father and the Son, as well as of the Holy Spirit, would be clear, as is self-evident, because in the beginning there was a Trinity and this Trinity was together.

Verse 1... And God is the Word.4 Using the name of the Word to show that His supernatural birth was pre-eternal and passionless, He further prevents the harm that may arise from such a name, i.e. lest anyone utter blasphemy, thinking that this Word is the same as our thought or uttered; but He is not such, but hypostatic, of the same nature and dignity as the Father.

Verse 2. Having said that the Word has always existed, that He was inseparable from the Father, and that He was God, he briefly and wonderfully completes all that has been said about Him, presenting us with an outline of the theological teaching about the Son of God. To those who say that every son comes after the father, we answer: By saying every son, you have already solved your perplexity, therefore the Son of God is not like every son, but supernatural. And against those who persistently prove that everything that comes from something must necessarily be after that from which it came, so it is necessary to defend oneself: the radiance of the sun, which proceeds from it, does not come after it, and the sun never appears without radiance. But if this is the case with sensible objects, what can anyone say about that which is above every word? Having called the Word God, he also ascribes to Him a Divine attribute, namely creativity, since God, who did not create the heavens and the earth, let them perish (Jeremiah 10:11)1; and this is done so that they do not think that He is inferior to the Father.

Verse 3. All things were there, and without Him there was nothing.2 Having said all this, so that they would not think that this was said only about the material world, he added: "And without Him there would be nothing, if there was," that is, nothing that happened both in the material world and in the spiritual world. From this, of course, the Holy Spirit is excluded, because He did not come into being, so that He could be understood together with all the others, but was neither begotten nor created, like the Son and the Father: only the Trinity is neither begotten nor created. By calling the Son the Creator of all visible and invisible creatures, He did not thereby deprive the Father of the creative power, but only showed that the Son, like the Father, is the Creator; this is common to all three Persons, because it is an attribute of the Godhead, as was said above. Therefore, in the Holy Scriptures, creativity is sometimes attributed to the Father, sometimes to the Son, and sometimes to the Holy Spirit, since the Father is pleased, the Son acts, and the Holy Spirit cooperates. In the fifth chapter (v. 17) Jesus Christ says: "My Father has worked hitherto, and I have worked." Some detractors have said that the expression "theme" (δι αυτου) degrades the Son, indicating not creation but service. But they did not know that the same thing was equally applied to the Father; the Apostle Paul (1 Corinthians 1:9) said: "God is faithful, in Whom (δι ου) you were called into the communion of His Son... 3 And so that no one may be left perplexed as to how so many such creatures were created by the Word, the Evangelist says:

Verse 4. In That life there is... 4 By this life the Word not only produced all things, but also preserves them in being, since of Him we can say the same thing as it is said of the Father: "For in Him we live, and move, and are" (Acts 17:28).5 When you hear that in Him there was life, do not think of the Word as consisting of parts, but as the very source of life, because immediately the Evangelist calls the whole Word life, Speaking; and the life is the light of man. And in another place Jesus Christ Himself says: I am... life (John 14:6).6 The Doukhobors, after the words: "Without it, nothing will be there"; then all the following are read together: "If it became, there was life in it, in order to show that the Holy Spirit was created," since, they say, this saying refers to the Holy Spirit. But they are easy to refute. First of all, the words "zhe byt" indicate everything that has happened; then, life itself is here called light, since it is immediately added: life is the light of man; A little later, speaking of John, the Evangelist said: "This one has come for a witness, that he may bear witness to the Light," and yet it is known that John bore witness not to the Holy Spirit, but to the Son, as we shall learn later.

Verse 4... And life is the light of man.7 And the Son Himself was a light to men, enlightening their minds and guiding them from error to truth. As for the very name of the Son as light, the Son Himself says in another place: "I am the light of the world" (John 8:12). Thus He is called both life and light, life as quickening and preserving all things, and light as enlightening and purifying the minds of those who have received Him. By light and life, however, some understand the preaching of the Gospel, which He brought to people as the foundation of spiritual life and the light of reason.

Verse 5. And the light shines in darkness, and darkness does not encompass it.8 The preaching of the Gospel is here called light for the reason indicated and because of the truth, and darkness is error because of its falsehood. And so, he says: The preaching of the Gospel shines in the midst of error, but error has not overcome it. St. Gregory the Theologian, in his Sermon on the Holy Lights, understood this saying differently; but it is possible to accept both interpretations. Hitherto the Evangelist has spoken of the Divinity of the Son of God, and from here he begins the Gospel.