ACC ~ John 5 v26

LIFE “IN HIMSELF”

AUGUSTINE: Why did he add “in himself”? It would suffice for him to say, “For as the Father has life, so he has given to the Son also to have life.” And yet, he has added “in himself.”

For if the Father has life in himself, the Son also has life in himself. He intended for us to understand something when he said “in himself.” A secret is locked up here in this word; let there be knocking that it may be opened. [1] O Lord, what is it that you said? Why did you add “in himself”? For did not the apostle Paul whom you made to live have life? “He did,” he says. Dead people may live again and may pass by believing in your word. When they have passed, will they not have life in you? “They will have; for I said a little before, ‘He who hears my words and believes him who sent me has life everlasting.’” Therefore, those who believe in you have life—and you did not say “in themselves.” But when you were speaking about the Father, you said, “As the Father has life in himself.” Again when you were speaking about yourself you said, “So he has given to the Son also to have life in himself.” As he has, so he has given. Where does he have it? “In himself.” Where has he given it? “In himself.” Where does Paul have it? Not in himself, but in Christ. Where do you, a man of faith have it? Not in yourself, but in Christ. Let us see if the apostle says this: “And I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me.” [2] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 22.9.1-2. [3]

[1] See Lk 11:9.

[2] See Gal 2:20.

[3] FC 79:205*.

THE FATHER GIVES AND THE SON RECEIVES

AUGUSTINE: “As the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself.” Therefore, [the Son] does not live by participation; rather, he lives without change and in every respect is, himself, life. The Father has given the Son to have life. As the Father has, so he has given. What difference is there? The difference is that the one has given, the other has received. Did the Son already exist when he received? Do we understand that Christ was once without light when he is himself the wisdom of the Father about which it was said, “It is the brightness of eternal life?” [1]

Therefore, when it says, “He has given to the Son” it is as if he said, “He begat a Son,” since the Father gave by begetting. [2] Just as the Father gave the son to be, he also gave him to be life and he gave him to be life in himself. What does it mean to be life in himself? It means that he would not need life from any other source. It means that he himself would be the fullness of life out of which others, who believe in him, might [truly] have life while they live. Therefore “He has given to him to have life in himself.” He has given to whom? He has given, so to speak, to his Word, to him who “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” [3] TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 22.10.3-4. [4]

[1] Cf. Wis 7:26.

[2] See also Ambrose On the Christian Faith 3.16.133 (NPNF 2 10:261).

[3] Cf. Jn 1:1.

[4] FC 79:207*.

LIFE GIVES BIRTH TO LIFE

HILARY OF POITIERS: He bore witness that life, to the fullest extent, is his gift from the living God. Now if the living Son was born from the living Father, that birth took place without a new nature coming into existence. Nothing new comes into existence when the living is begotten by the living, for life was not sought out from the nonexistent in order to receive birth. And life, which receives its birth from life, must—because of that unity of nature and because of the mysterious event of that perfect and ineffable birth— live always in [Christ], who lives and has the life of the living in himself. ON THE TRINITY 7.27. [1]

[1] NPNF 2 9:130*.

JESUS SPEAKS OF HIS HUMAN NATURE

THEODORE OF MOPSUESTIA: The Father, he says, gave him his same ability to raise [from the dead] and conferred on him the same power to judge. And, as far as saying these things about the man [Jesus], he is correct because in his union with the Word he received omnipotence like the Father has. [1] COMMENTARY ON JOHN 2.5.26-27. [2]

[1] The Syriac again evidences a sharp distinction between the divine and human natures of Christ.

[2] CSCO 4 3:118.

Jn