ACC ~ John 8 v23

THOSE FROM BELOW LEARN FROM HIM WHO IS ABOVE

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA: We are those who bear about with us, in this living and moving image of our human nature, the likeness of God. It is a likeness that lives with us, takes counsel with us, associates with us, is a guest with us, feels with us and feels for us. We have become a consecrated offering to God for Christ’s sake. We are the chosen generation, the royal priesthood, the holy nation, the peculiar people who once were not a people but are now the people of God. [1] We are those who, according to John, are not of those who are beneath but have learned all from him who came from above; who have come to understand the dispensation of God; who have learned to walk in newness of life. EXHORTATION TO THE GREEKS 4. [2]

[1] 1 Pet 2:9.

[2] ANF 2:189**.

WHO IS FROM BELOW?

ORIGEN: But pay attention, if you also desire to learn from Scripture who it is who is from below and who it is who is from above. Since each person’s treasure is where his heart is, if someone stores up treasure on earth, [1] by the very act of storing up treasure on earth he is from below. But if someone stores up treasure in heaven, [2] that person is born from above and assumes “the image of the heavenly.” [3] And in addition, when this person has passed through all the heavens, he is found to have reached the most blessed goal. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 19.138. [4]

[1] Mt 6:21.

[2] Mt 6:20.

[3] See Jn 3:3; 1 Cor 15:49.

[4] FC 89:198; SC 290:128-30.

HOW COULD THE CREATOR BE OF THIS WORLD?

AUGUSTINE: How could Jesus be of the world when he made the world? TRACTATES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 38.4. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 7:218*.

DIVINE WISDOM IS NOT OF THIS WORLD

CHRYSOSTOM: Here again he speaks of their worldly and carnal imaginations. It is clear that “I am not of this world” does not mean that he had not taken flesh on himself but that he was far removed from their wickedness. HOMILIES ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 53.1. [1]

[1] NPNF 1 14:190*.

CHRIST IS NOT OF THIS WORLD OR ANY OTHER

CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA: Here he clearly shows what he means by “above” and “below.” The Pharisees would have understood what he said in a bodily way, thinking the “above” and “below” were localities. That is why our Lord clarifies what he had previously said so obscurely. For he says, “You are of this world,” that is, from beneath; “I am not of this world,” speaking of what is from above. For God surpasses all that is created. His superiority is not a localized kind of exaltation (as if the incorporeal could be conceived in any way as local, except by the foolish and utterly uninstructed). Rather, he surpasses derivative beings because of his own most excellent and ineffable nature. It is of this essence that the Word says he is. He has not been created by it. He is its fruit and offspring. For notice how he does not say, “I have been created and made from above” but instead says, “I am,” in order to show both where he came from and also that he was always and eternally with his own progenitor. For he is even as the Father too is….

But the enemy of the truth… will say that by adding “this,” Christ has shown that there is another world, the spiritual world, from which he might have come, implying the Son is a creature… in the same class as angels [1] who… if he is not part of this world, is part of another…. But the word this or “of this” is a demonstrative pronoun that does not necessarily imply comparison with another…. Therefore when Christ says, “I am not of this world,” he is not saying that he is part of some other world but is… putting the Jews in the place of things that have an origin, saying, “You are of this world” while he severs himself altogether from things created and connects himself instead with that other place, and by this I mean the Godhead, when he says, “I am not of this world.” In this way, he contrasts the Godhead with the world so that we can understand. COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN 5.4. [2]

[1] This is what Origen had unwittingly done in his commentary, but so had the Arian Asterius, who in Fragment 3 had called the Son the”first of derivative beings.” See Wiles, 78-79 n. 4, and also Athanasius De Synodis 19.

[2] LF 43:586-89**.