1 In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God: and the Word was God.
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VERS. 1.-- *In the beginning was the Word.* Against those who, on account of Christ's temporal nativity, said that Christ had not always been, he begins with the eternity of the Word, saying: *In the beginning was the Word.*
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made.
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VERS. 3.-- *All things were made by him.* He is not a creature, through whom every creature was made, etc., *as far as* which all agree unto the power of the Divinity. *And without him was made nothing.* Thus he divides it: *And without him was made nothing.* The order is: *There is nothing which was made without him.*
4 In him was life: and the life was the light of men.
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VERS. 4.-- *What was made, was life in him.* John Chrysostom: *And without him was made nothing. What was made.* Hilary: *Without him was made nothing, which was made in him.*
5 And the light shineth in darkness: and the darkness did not comprehend it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
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VERS. 6.-- *There was a man sent.* After he had ascended by a lofty flight beyond every nature into the height of theology, because he had contemplated that the Word had always been with the Father, he presently descends to the lowliness of human nature, and particularly of the Word's forerunner, against those who said that human nature had been in the first parent wholly lost and brought to nothing. *A man sent.* A man, not an angel, as the heretics will have it, sent from God. Therefore he was able to speak of God.
7 This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light, that all men might believe through him.
8 He was not the light, but was to give testimony of the light.
9 That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world.
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VERS. 9.-- *He was the true light.* Every man is said to be that nature in man which was made to the image and to the likeness of God. All the other things which are in man are the lower parts of man, and are in a manner outside the man. In that, namely, the soul, as in a certain higher world, the true light shines, and it enlightens those coming into that world and being born again through grace, because they whose life and conversation is in the heavens are as it were in another world.
10 He was in the world: and the world was made by him: and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own: and his own received him not.
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VERS. 11.-- *And his own received him not.* From the beginning of the world there was no time in which there were not receivers of the divine word; whence he adds: *But as many as received him.*
12 But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name.
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VERS. 12.-- *To be made the sons of God.* A wondrous power, that they who were sons of the devil should, set free through him, be called both sons of God and brethren of Christ. But by what order they are made sons of God, and how this generation differs from the carnal, is subjoined: *Who not of bloods.*
13 Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth.
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VERS. 14.-- *And the Word was made flesh.* But that we may securely believe that men are born of God, he subjoins that God is born of man: by this taking on of infirmity our infirmity is healed, that we may be able to be made sons of God. And this is it: *And the Word was made flesh.* That which was above descended below. What wonder: if that which was below ascended into that which is above? Nor is it a wonder if men are born of God, since God was born of man. *Full of grace and truth.* The man Christ was full of grace, because, with no merits going before, from the time he was conceived the Godhead was in him, filling that man with all fullness, redounding into all the saints; whence his mother also is called not only the mother of a man, but also the mother of God. Nor is it a wonder if a man is also called God, since God is also called man. And this is called grace and truth, because it was so promised of old and now exhibited: namely, that God should be in the man, filling him with every good, and through him his own.
15 John beareth witness of him and crieth out, saying: This was he of whom I spoke: He that shall come after me is preferred before me: because he was before me.
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VERS. 15.-- *This was he of whom I said.* By the demonstrative pronoun it is intimated that Christ was present in that place. For often the Lord himself, still unknown, before he was baptized and preached, was wont to come to John. *Who is to come after me.* Who is born after me, who is to preach after me, to baptize, to die. Not that he was not already born when he said these things, since he had even been baptized: but he was to come in preaching, in death, but not in resurrection. *He was made before me, because he was prior to me.* From the Greek, he was made in my presence, that is, he appeared to me indeed, namely, because he was prior to me.
16 And of his fulness we all have received: and grace for grace.
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VERS. 16.-- *And of the fullness.* The forerunner's testimony having been set forth, the evangelist returns to the testimony of his own assertion. As if he should say: *The Word was made flesh: we saw his glory, full of grace and truth, and of his fullness we all have received.* Grace, that we may believe in him, and truth, by which we shall understand him. *We have received.* Not only the grace which is plainly given gratis, not for merit, as the faith which works through love, by which the just man lives, but in return for that one, grace, that is, eternal blessedness, which is also called the wage of justice, and grace also, because the merit is from grace. *Grace for grace.* Grace is given in the conceiving of the good through grace. Grace simply, which is not of merit; if afterwards we work with it, we grow accustomed to good things, and then grace is given for the former grace.
17 For the law was given by Moses: grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
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VERS. 17.-- *By Moses.* By Moses the servant, the foretelling; by the Lord Jesus, the fulfilling of salvation.
18 No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son who is in the Bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
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VERS. 18.-- *No man hath seen God at any time.* That is, no mere man living in this body has seen God as he is; whence it was said to Moses: *Man shall not see me and live*, that is, no one living in the body shall see my divinity. Whence God added these things to Moses: *Stand in the hole of the rock, and when I shall have passed through, thou shalt see my back parts*. The rock, that is, Christ; the hole, the gibbet of the cross; *I shall have passed through*, that is, I shall pass over from the world to the Father. The back parts: his birth, his passion, his resurrection, his ascension, through which, being believed, we come to his blessedness and to the sight of him. That which is read, that God appeared to men either visibly to the eyes of the flesh, or invisibly in prophetic visions, is to be understood as done through a creature made subject to him; for the visions of the prophets were wrought by a certain spiritual creature, in which they are declared to have seen God. *The only-begotten Son,* etc. What the sum of grace and truth may be he briefly subjoins, namely, the knowledge of the Trinity itself; whence: *This is life eternal, that they may know thee the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.* Which in this life is not full, because no one in the flesh has seen God as he is. Whence neither Moses himself, much less was grace given through him, as he himself also, after all the things seen in the figure of God, said: *Show me thyself*, but the Son, who is in the secret of the Father, has declared him, *because no one knows the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall have willed to reveal him*. He himself declares to his own what is to be held concerning the Trinity of the Godhead, and how it is to be come to, and he leads them into it.
19 And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and Levites to him, to ask him: Who art thou?
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VERS. 19.-- *And this.* Both this and the other testimonies of John that follow were given after Christ had been baptized, when Jesus was now coming to invite the disciples, whom John by his testimonies sends to him. A testimony against this, that Christ was hidden: hidden, because lowly; lowly, that he might be able to be despised and killed, that he might redeem the world. *Who art thou.* The Jews thought John to be the Christ who was promised in the law. Others thought him to be Elias, because of his exceeding abstinence and chastity, and his solitary life, and his most sharp rebuking of offences, and the most severe terror of the vengeance to come. Others said that he was one of the prophets raised up again, because of the grace of prophecy.
20 And he confessed and did not deny: and he confessed: I am not the Christ.
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VERS. 20.-- *He confessed.* He confessed, as he says afterwards, not that he was the Christ. He did not deny what he was, that is, that he was the forerunner, as he says when questioned afterwards: *I am the voice of one crying.* The order of the words is: and he confessed and did not deny, when they sent.
21 And they asked him: What then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered: No.
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VERS. 21.-- *Art thou Elias?* Since all knew the name of Christ, they knew also that Elias was to go before him. But Elias himself is to go before him as about to judge in power; John is figuratively Elias, going before the same one as about to be judged: so that there are two heralds, as there are two advents of the same one. Whence: *I am not Elias,* that is, not the herald pointing to his power; but I show the lowliness at which you take offence. As if he should say: Serve the lowly one before the exalted one judges. Behold, neither am I the Christ, nor a judge on the side of power.
22 They said therefore unto him: Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? What sayest thou of thyself?
23 He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaias.
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VERS. 23.-- *I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.* He does not say, I am a man, or John, or the son of Zacharias. He does not regard his human subsistence or his generation, but, exalted beyond all these things as the forerunner of the Word, he forsakes all things that are contained within the world. He ascends on high, made the voice of the Word, and confesses in himself no substance beyond the abundance of grace by which he surpasses every creature, that he may be the voice of the Word. The voice is the interpreter of the mind; but the mind, that is, the understanding of all things, is the Son of God. John therefore is the voice and interpreter of this mind, because he first showed him to the world: *Behold the Lamb of God. Isaias,* prophesied this of John: *I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,* in which the word sounds, that is, prophecy, and the showing forth and the lamp of the Word present.
24 And they that were sent were of the Pharisees.
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VERS. 24.-- *Of the Pharisees.* That is, of the chief men of the Jews, who do not seek doctrine, but envy it. Who nevertheless come to John for this reason, that they hear that he has preached the common resurrection of all, which they themselves also believed; whence they themselves also agree with Christ in many things. They gave hearing to the Apostle Paul also in many things.
25 And they asked him and said to him: Why then dost thou baptize, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet?
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VERS. 25.-- *Why then dost thou baptize.* The Pharisees heard in the prophets that Christ would come and would baptize, knowing that the Jordan had borne the figure of baptism, and that Elias and Eliseus had crossed it with dry feet; and they did not doubt that the figure of baptism had gone before in Elias and Eliseus, whence they now thought that these had risen again and had baptized. Whence they do not ask, Art thou one of the prophets? but only: Art thou the prophet? that one, namely, who prefigured baptism.
26 John answered them, saying: I baptize with water: but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not.
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VERS. 26.-- *I baptize in water.* Let not what I do be imputed to boldness, because I wash bodies with water, I do not take away sins; so that, as I am forerunner in being born and in preaching, so also in baptizing: but he is in the midst of you who takes away sins.
27 The same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose.
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VERS. 27.-- *Whose I am not worthy,* etc. He does not say, I will not loose. For he does loose, since he made him manifest and disclosed many things concerning his divinity and his humanity; but, I am not worthy, because he reckons himself unworthy for the doing of this, in which humility is simply shown.
28 These things were done in Bethania, beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
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VERS. 28.-- *These things in Bethania.* There are two Bethanias. One beyond the Jordan, the other round about, not far from Jerusalem, where Lazarus was raised. That which is beyond the Jordan signifies human nature under the natural law before the streams of grace, which grace was abundant after the incarnation of Christ; which nature had been created to this end, that it should obey the law of nature, in which John baptizes, because he does not free from sin. He baptizes beyond the streams of the divine gifts, which had not yet begun in Christ to descend into human nature. That which is on this side of the Jordan signifies the same human nature obedient under the law of grace, which is nearest to Jerusalem, that is, to the vision of peace, through charity, in which Christ raises the dead man, because he frees from sin.
29 The next day, John saw Jesus coming to him; and he saith: Behold the Lamb of God. Behold him who taketh away the sin of the world.
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VERS. 29.-- *The next day John saw Jesus.* Typically. John, that is, the people of grace, on the next day, that is, after the law, knows the lamb by whom it is redeemed. *Coming to him, and he says.* Not only by the steps of the body, but also by the approaches of his own inward contemplation, because he deigned to be known by John according to his divinity and his humanity. *Behold the Lamb of God,* etc. Three things the lamb supplies to those who possess him: the milk of simple doctrine, by which little ones are nourished; the wool, that is, the increases of the virtues; the eating of his flesh. *The sins of the world.* The sin of the world is called original sin, which is common to the whole world, by which the whole of human nature, founded at once and together, transgressed the divine laws through disobedience in paradise; and that original sin, and the several sins added on top of it, grace looses.
30 This is he of whom I said: After me there cometh a man, who is preferred before me: because he was before me.
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VERS. 30.-- *After me there comes a man.* Christ is man, in which he agrees with us and pays on our behalf; and Son of God, in which he agrees with the Father, and by forgiving sins reconciles us to him.
31 And I knew him not: but that he may be made manifest in Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
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VERS. 31.-- *That he may be made manifest.* This is the lamb who takes away sins, which I am not, whom also I now know better; but for this reason do I baptize, that he may be made manifest to Israel. For lest, on account of the strangeness of it, they should be the less baptized by Christ in the Spirit, he prepared the way for him by the practice of baptizing; whence, after men had come to him who is the way, his baptism ceases. In John's baptism also the humility of Christ is made manifest, which is the fulfilling of all justice; for as it was needful that Christ should be born and die, so also that he should be baptized. For if he himself, who has no need, is baptized by a servant, let not men, however wise and holy, disdain to be baptized by the Lord, without whom they remain in their sins. *Baptizing.* Christ is baptized by John, that all humility, which is all justice, may be shown. But not he alone, lest the baptism of John, in which God-and-man was baptized, should seem holier and greater than the baptism of Christ, in which men are baptized. But others are baptized by John, so that the practice of baptizing may prepare the way for the baptism of Christ.
32 And John gave testimony, saying: I saw the Spirit coming down, as a dove from heaven; and he remained upon him.
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VERS. 32.-- *And testimony.* As he said that he had come to make Christ manifest, so he bore testimony, namely: *he saw the Spirit.* In which he learned what he did not know before. He had come also to preach penance, that is, to make the preparation for Christ's preaching; but he sets down only the preparation of baptism by itself, because the baptism of Christ is the highest sacrament among the rest. *The Spirit descending.* Not that he then first descended, but that by this he might be shown to descend and to remain in those baptized in water and not otherwise, and that John through him might understand more excellently concerning Christ.
33 And I knew him not: but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me: He upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining upon him, he it is that baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
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VERS. 33.-- *And I knew him not.* The dove having been seen, he says that through it he learned what he did not know before, etc., *as far as* whence the Apostle: *In labour and in mind they are different, in working undifferentiated.* He shows that John did not know, by the baptism of Christ, that is, that the world was redeemed; for he knew him to be the Son of God and born in the flesh. Aug. says that John was ignorant of this only: whether he would keep to himself the power of baptizing, or would grant it to some one of his own. *And remaining.* Spiritually the Spirit is said to remain in Christ, from whom he never withdrew through sin, in whom he always lived wonderfully and wonderfully wrought; into the saints he comes, and through sins he withdraws. Yet he always remains in them for something, as Christ promised them, namely, that they may always press on in good things. For something he does not remain, namely, that they should prophesy from him or work miracles; and therefore this which he says is the first sign of recognizing Christ. *Who baptizes.* Christ baptizes in the Spirit, not only by remitting sins in the water, but also by cleansing afterwards, and by kindling love, and by filling with gifts. *This is the Son of God.* Here he testifies him to be the Son of God whom above he was calling a man: so that from him there may be had a testimony of either nature.
34 And I saw: and I gave testimony that this is the Son of God.
35 The next day again John stood and two of his disciples.
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VERS. 35.-- *The next day John was standing again.* Typically. John stands, the law ceases, yet bearing testimony to Christ. Jesus walks, that is, grace, gathering from this side and from that.
36 And beholding Jesus walking, he saith: Behold the Lamb of God.
37 And the two disciples heard him speak: and they followed Jesus.
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VERS. 37.-- *They followed Jesus.* They followed, that they might now hear him rather than John, not yet however cleaving to him wholly, but that they might see where he dwells, that they might come to him constantly and be taught by him; and afterwards they followed perfectly, when he called them from the boat. Two follow, because they who follow ought to be kindled with a twofold charity.
38 And Jesus turning and seeing them following him, saith to them: What seek you? Who said to him: Rabbi (which is to say, being interpreted, Master), where dwellest thou?
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VERS. 38.-- *Turning.* As it were from behind they had seen him, but as it were he offered them his face when he came down from his majesty, that he might be able to be seen, when in place of the shadow of the law he showed forth the light of the Gospel. *What seek ye?* He asks, not as one ignorant, but that they who answer may have a reward: he asks the thing, not the person, *what*, not *whom*, lest he should seem to show himself; they answer the person. *Where dwellest thou?* Mystically. They wish it to be shown them in whom Christ dwells, that they may make themselves like to them. Or: they who see the incarnation devoutly ask that it be shown them how the eternal dwelling is with the Father.
39 He saith to them: Come and see. They came and saw where he abode: and they stayed with him that day. Now it was about the tenth hour.
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VERS. 39.-- *Come.* As if to say: it cannot be unfolded in speech, but is shown in work; come by believing and by working, and you shall understand; come by the testimony of John, and withdraw from the law, and you shall receive grace. *That day.* He shows the New Testament, or the present life. *And it was about the tenth hour.* Because they had come from the law, the decalogue sent them to Christ; at the tenth hour they seek to be taught by him, because none other teaches the law but he who gave it. And he teaches with mercy, and those things are fulfilled which they could not fulfil; or the tenth hour indicates the evening of the world.
40 And Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, was one of the two who had heard of John and followed him.
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VERS. 40.-- *The brother of Simon Peter, one of the two who had heard from John, and had followed.* The brother younger in birth believes first, for the order of faith is not an empty thing. Perhaps for dignity Andrew is said to be the brother of Peter, upon whom, that is, upon whose faith, the Church was to be founded.
41 He findeth first his brother Simon and saith to him: We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ.
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VERS. 41.-- *He findeth first.* True piety at once announces the treasure it has found to its brother, that as he is a brother by blood, so he may be a brother also in faith. *We have found the Messias,* etc. Christus in Greek, Messias in Hebrew, anointed in Latin: for he was truly and in a special way anointed by the Holy Spirit, and from that anointing Christians are named. That Jacob, after the vision, set up a stone for a pillar which the pouring on of oil anointed: already by divine gift he figuratively understood, through that rock, the rock to come, namely Christ, who was to be anointed with the Holy Spirit; and he prefigured that the Church was so to be founded upon that rock, etc.
42 And he brought him to Jesus. And Jesus looking upon him, said: Thou art Simon the son of Jona. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is interpreted Peter.
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VERS. 42.-- *Thou art Simon the son.* First he says the name as he has it from his parents, that the change may be signified when from Simon he calls him Peter. But in the change is marked the liveliness of the mystery; yet neither is the former name without power. For Simon is *obedient*, son of grace or of the dove, when he comes to Jesus, following his brother; whence from the rock, that is Christ, he is called Peter, weak in him, in the figure of the Church which is founded upon the rock. *Thou art Simon.* He changed the name for this reason, that he might show that it is he himself who gave the Old Testament and changed names: because he called Abram Abraham, and Sarai Sara, and Jacob Israel. Therefore upon many he laid names even from their birth, as upon Isaac and Samson; but upon others after the naming which comes from their forebears, as upon Peter and the sons of Zebedee. For those in whom virtue was to shine out from their first age received their names from that time; but those in whom it was afterwards to be increased, upon them the naming was set afterwards. *Son of Joanna,* etc. Jona and Joanna are said indifferently. Jona is interpreted *dove,* Joanna *grace.*
43 On the following day, he would go forth into Galilee: and he findeth Philip, And Jesus saith to him: follow me.
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VERS. 43.-- *Into Galilee, and he found Philip.* Galilee is interpreted transmigration, or revelation. For man passes over from the vices to the virtues, and afterwards from virtue to virtue, and so revelation is made to him, that the God of gods may be seen in Sion. About to call a disciple therefore to follow him, that is, to imitate him, he goes out into Galilee, intimating by the place itself that, as he himself advanced in wisdom, and as through sufferings he entered into glory, so also do his followers.
44 Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.
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VERS. 44.-- *From Bethsaida the city.* Not in vain is the city named, nor in vain is it said to be the city of Philip, of Peter and of Andrew. For it sounds *house of hunters*, in which is marked the disposition and the office of these men: for they are hunters in the taking of souls; whence Philip, before he becomes an apostle, of his own accord calls Nathanael.
45 Philip findeth Nathanael and saith to him: We have found him of whom Moses, in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus the son of Joseph of Nazareth.
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VERS. 45.-- *Philip findeth,* etc. Nathanael, most skilled in the Scriptures, understands what others do not, namely, that from Nazareth there comes forth a singular Nazarene; but because he was most learned, he was not chosen into an apostle: for all the apostles were first from the unlearned, that the wise might be confounded. *Whom Moses wrote of.* Like a wary hunter he builds up the truth for his brother by many reasons, namely, that Jesus is he who is foretold in the law and the prophets. The son of Joseph, who is of the house of David: so that through him (not that he was born of him), together with Mary his mother (whom he knew from the prophets to have brought forth as a virgin), he may be marked as being of David.
46 And Nathanael said to him: Can any thing of good come from Nazareth? Philip saith to him: Come and see.
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VERS. 46.-- *And Nathanael said to him.* Either he asks in doubt, or he affirms, as one skilled in the law, that from a city of so great a name there can be some good man, or an outstanding teacher, or the supreme Saviour. For Nazareth is interpreted flower, or bud of cleanness, or holiness. And to either utterance there is fittingly subjoined: *Come and see,* etc.
47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming to him and he saith of him: Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile.
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VERS. 47.-- *Behold an Israelite indeed.* Guile, that is, dissimulation. For if he has sins, he confesses them. He does not therefore deny him to be a sinner, but praises the confession in him. But the Pharisees are guileful, who proclaim themselves good when they are evil.
48 Nathanael saith to him: Whence knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said to him: Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.
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VERS. 48.-- *Whence knowest thou me?* Knowing that the Lord speaks of his conscience, he asks not out of indignation, but in wonder: whence, and from what power. *I saw thee under the fig tree.* Nathanael, that is, the gift of God, is the true people of Israel, the gift of God, which was hidden under the fig tree, that is, made subject under the habit of sinning and the shadow of death, as the first parents covered themselves under the leaves of the fig tree; where he had been seen and sought by the Lord before he saw and sought the Lord, and even before he called him through the apostles.
49 Nathanael answered him and said: Rabbi: Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.
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VERS. 49.-- *Rabbi, thou art the Son of God.* Because Nathanael knew that Christ, though absent, had seen what he himself had done in another place, that is, how and where he was called by Philip, which is a token of Deity, he confesses him not only master, but also the Son of God, and king of Israel, that is, Christ: in which he is proved to be an Israelite, as it is said, that is, one seeing God.
50 Jesus answered and said to him: Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, thou believest: greater things than these shalt thou see.
51 And he saith to him: Amen, amen, I say to you, you shall see the heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.
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VERS. 51.-- *You shall see heaven opened.* Nathanael the Israelite is said to be about to see heaven opened, and the angels of God descending and ascending, as of old the patriarch Jacob saw the ladder, and the angels ascending and descending, who through the blessing was called Israel. *The angels of God.* Often this miracle appeared, that angels ascended and descended upon Christ. *Upon the Son of man.* Christ calls himself the Son of man, affirming what is less, namely his humanity; Nathanael and Peter call him the Son of God, which is greater, affirming his divinity. Behold the confirmation of either nature in Christ. These, confessing his deity, deserve to ascend; he, asserting his humanity, testifies that he came to redeem. *Upon the Son of man.* He confirms that he is man, lest any should err, believing him to be only God, as even Peter did when he said: *Far be it from thee, Lord.*