go not up,” that He might be hid; He added “this,” that He might not lie. Something He
expressed,3992 something He suppressed, something He repressed; yet said He nothing false,
for “nothing false proceedeth out of His Mouth.” Finally, after He had said these words,
“When His brethren were gone up;”3993 the Gospel declares it, attend, read what you have
objected to me; see if the passage itself do not solve the difficulty, see if I have taken from
anywhere else what to say. This then the Lord was waiting for, that they should go up first,
that they might not announce beforehand that He was coming, “When His brethren were
gone up, then went He also up to the feast day, not openly, but as it were in secret.” What
is, “as it were in secret”? He acts there as if in secret. What is, “as it were in secret”? Because
neither was this really in secret. For He did not really make an effort to be concealed, who
had it in His Own power when He would be taken. But in that concealment, as I have said,
He gave His weak disciples, who had not the power to prevent being taken when they would
not, an example of being on their guard against the snares of enemies. For He went up after-
wards even openly, and taught them in the temple; and some said, “‘ Lo, this is He; lo, He
is teaching.’ Certainly our rulers said that they wished to apprehend Him: ‘Lo, He speaketh
openly, and no one layeth hands on Him.’”3994
8. But now if we turn our attention to ourselves, if we think of His Body, how that we
are even He. For if we were not He, “Forasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of
Mine, ye have done it unto Me,”3995 would not be true. If we were not He, “Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou Me?”3996 would not be true. So then we are He, in that we are His members,
in that we are His Body, in that He is our Head, in that Whole Christ is both Head and
Body.3997 Peradventure then He foresaw us that we were not to keep the feast days of the
Jews, and this is, “I go not up to this feast day.” See neither Christ nor the Evangelist lied;
of the which two if one must needs choose one, the Evangelist would pardon me, I would
by no means put him that is true before the Truth Himself; I would not prefer him that was
sent to Him by whom he was sent. But God be thanked, in my judgment what was obscure
has been laid open. Your piety will aid me before God. Behold, I have, as I was best able,
resolved the question, both concerning Christ and the Evangelist. Hold fast the truth with
me as men who love it, embrace charity without contention.
3992 Aliquid intulit, aliquid abstulit, aliquid distulit.
3993 John vii. 10.
3994 John vii. 25, 26.
3995 Matt. xxv. 40.
3996 Acts. ix. 4.
3997 Eph. i. 22, 23; 1 Cor. xii. 12.
1054
On the words of the Gospel of John vii. 6, etc., where Jesus said that He…