ACC ~ John 1 v4b

HE BROUGHT LIFE TO US

AUGUSTINE: From where do we get life, from where does he get death? Just look at him: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” [1] Look for death there. Where? Where from? What sort of Word? The Word with God, the Word that was God. If you can find flesh and blood there, you can find death. So where did death come from for that Word? On the other hand, where did life come from for us human beings, stuck on the earth, mortal, perishable, sinners? He had nothing where he could get death from; we had nothing where we could get life from. He accepted death from what was ours, in order to give us life from what was his. How did he get death from what was ours? “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” [2] He accepted from us here what he would offer for us. And where did life come from for us? “And the life was the light of men.” He was life for us; we were death for him. SERMON 232.5. [3]

[1] Jn 1:1.

[2] Jn 1:14.

[3] WSA 3 7:26. Ambrose brings in the imagery of the tree of life in Eden. See Death as a Good 4.13; 12.53.

LIFE AS ENLIGHTENMENT

ORIGEN: Let us not fail to notice that while it could have been written, “What was made in him was the light of men, and the light of men was life,” John has done the reverse. For he places “the life” before the “light of men,” although “life” and “light of men” are the same….

Why isn’t the “Word” said to be the “light of men,” instead of the “life” that was made in the Word?… The “life” mentioned there is not that life that makes both rational and irrational beings [alive]. It is instead the life that is added to the Word, which is completed in us when a share from the first Word is received. And so, when we turn away from what seems to be life but really is not and we yearn to truly possess life—that is when we first share in it. Once this [kind of] life exists in us, it also becomes the foundation of the light of knowledge.

And perhaps this life is light potentially (and not actually) for those who really do not want to learn, but with others it becomes light also in actuality. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 2.153, 156-57. [1]

[1] FC 80:135-36**; SC 120:306-10.