ACC ~ John 1 v34

JOHN UNDERSTOOD AND TESTIFIED TO JESUS’ DIVINITY

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: A confident witness is one who not only sees but actually speaks about what he has seen. [John] surely was not ignorant of what was written, “Tell what your eyes have seen.” [1] “I saw” then, he says, the sign, and I understood what was signified by it. I bear witness “that this is the Son of God,” who was proclaimed by the law through Moses and heralded by the voice of the holy prophets. The blessed Evangelist seems to me again to say with supreme confidence, “This is the Son of God,” that is, the one and only one who is by nature the unique [2] heir of the Father to whom we too, sons by adoption, are conformed and through whom we are called by grace to the dignity of sonship. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.1. [3]

[1] Prov 25:7 LXX.

[2] Gk idiōtēs.

[3] LF 43:147**.

IT IS THE ONLY SON WHO BAPTIZES

AUGUSTINE: “John testified… that he was the Son of God.” Therefore, it was necessary that he [Jesus] baptize, who was the only Son of God, not an adopted [son]. The adopted sons are the ministers of the only Son. The only Son has power, the adopted sons have the ministry. TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 7.4. [1]

[1] FC 78:157.