very long period, and in the most exalted strain. At that time, some fell away from the sublime
teaching of such words, namely, those who walked no more with Him afterwards. But there
were also those who did cleave to Him; and these were they who were able to receive the
meaning of this saying, “It is the spirit that quickeneth, but the flesh profiteth nothing.”1640
For surely it is true, that even through the flesh it is the spirit that profiteth,1641 and the
spirit alone that profiteth; whereas the flesh without the spirit profiteth nothing.
16. Next we come to the passage where His brethren—that is to say, His relations ac-
cording to the flesh—urge Him to go up to the feast-day, in order that He may have an op-
portunity of making Himself known to the multitude. And here, again, how supremely el-
evated is the tone of His reply! “My time is not yet come, but your time is alway ready. The
world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it that the works thereof are
evil.” 1642 So it is the case, then, that “your time is alway ready,” because ye desire that kind
of day to which the prophet refers when he says, “But I have not laboured following Thee,
O Lord; and the day of man I have not desired, Thou knowest:”1643 that is to say, to soar to
the light of the Word, and to desire that day which Abraham desired to see, and which he
did see, and was glad.1644 And again, how wonderful, how divine, how sublime are the
words which John represents Him to have spoken after He had gone up to the temple, at
the time of the feast! They are such as these: that where He was about to go, thither they
could not come;1645 that they both knew Him, and knew whence He was;1646 that He who
sent Him is true, whom they knew not,1647 which is much the same as if He had said, “Ye
both know whence I am, and know not whence I am.” And what else did He wish to be
understood by such utterances, but that it was possible for Him to be known to them accord-
ing to the flesh, in respect of lineage and country, but that, so far as regarded His divinity,
He was unknown to them? On this occasion, too, when He spoke of the gift of the Holy
Spirit, He showed them who He was, inasmuch as He could hold the power of bestowing
that highest boon.
1640 John vi. 63.
1641 The text gives: et per carnem spiritus prodest. Some editions read et carni, etc. = the spirit profiteth even
the flesh. [The erroneous view of the term “flesh” leads to this explanation. It has already in this passage an
ethical sense, which Augustin ignores.—R.]
1642 John vii. 6, 7.
1643 Jer. xvii. 16.
1644 John viii. 56.
1645 John vii. 34.
1646 John vii. 28.
1647 John vii. 28.
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Of the Evangelist John, and the Distinction Between Him and the Other T…