The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: the First Epistle of S. John
Listen to what was represented to S. Anselm in a heavenly vision concerning the unnumbered evils of the world, as it is related in his life : — “ Being rapt in an ecstasy, he beheld a mighty rushing river, into which all the filth in the world flowed from every quarter, so that nothing could be more horribly polluted than its waters. And wherever these waters reached, they carried off and bore down with them men and women, rich and poor. Anselm being full of wonder and pity at this sight, inquired how these persons were fed, and how they could live. He was told that the unhappy wretches drank and were delighted with the filthy mud by which they were borne along. Then there was added an explanation of this mystery. The world itself was the torrent in which blind mortals are hurried along by the riches and honours and other objects of their lust. And although they are so wretched that they cannot even stand, yet they count themselves happy and fortunate. After this he was led into a certain spacious and ample enclosure, whose walls were overlaid with the purest silver, and shone in a marvellous manner. In the midst there was a meadow, and the plants which were therein were not common herbs, but all of a soft and living silver. They gently gave way to him who sat upon them, and when he arose they again stood up. The air, too, was calm and pleasant. And in short all things were sweet and delightful, so that nothing more could seem to be desirable for felicity. And it was shown to him that this was the religious life. So that without doubt God willed to teach him by this image that all things in the world are unclean, uncertain, deadly, ever rushing headlong ; but that in religion, on the other hand, all things are pleasant — in fine, they are all like silver, fair and precious.”
Ver. 20. — And we know that the Son of God has come , &c. S. Ambrose (lib. 1 de Fid. c. 7) reads, hath appeared. The Apostle now explains what he had said, that we are of God, and therefore have overcome the world and the wicked one ; namely, that this has been done and is being done through Christ. God for this very end sent His Son into the world in our flesh, that by His Divine doctrine He might give us the sense and the knowledge of heavenly things, that forsaking our idols, and being freed from sin, the devil, and the world, as from false gods, we might know the true God, and might, by faith, hope, and charity, be incorporated into Christ His Son and His Church, and so be endowed by Him with the life of grace and everlasting glory. For He is the very true God, and the true, uncreated, everlasting Life itself.
And hath given us sense. (Vulg.). Instead of sense the Greek has διάνοιαν, which the Syriac renders understanding, i.e., illumination of the mind, divine knowledge. Vatablus translates, mind.
That we may know the true God, i.e. the Father.
And may be in His true Son . (Vulg.). The Greek, the Syriac, and S. Athanasius ( Oral . Deus de Deo) read, And may be in Himself the True, namely in His Son Jesus Christ. By this is meant that the Son is of the same substance with the Father, because He is True and the Truth essentially; namely, true God, even as the Father.
In these few words S. John gives as it were a compendium of his whole epistle, and of the Christian faith and creed. He marks its two chief mysteries ; namely, the oneness of Substance of the Father and the Son, and the Incarnation of Christ. Wherefore Bede saith, “What can be plainer than these words? What more sweet? What stronger utterances can there be against all heresies?” And S. Athanasius (Disp. c. Arius) says, “This is the very thing which Arius asked for, a written demonstration of the Godhead of the Son.”
And S. Cyril (12 Thesau. c. 13) says, “If He (the Son) is true God, this must be as to His Substance, not participatively, as a creature. For He who is true God is God by nature.” And S. Ambrose (lib. 1 de fide , cap . ult.) says, " If He be true God, surely He was not created, having nothing fallacious or unreal, nothing confused or dissimilar.” And in the 8th chap, he intimates that the expressions in the Nicene Creed, “ God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God,” &c., are drawn from this verse. And S. Jerome says, “ If He were not true (God), He would be like an idol.”
This is the true God . Erasmus, Arianising after his manner, and twisting, as he does many passages of Scripture which speak of the Divinity of the Son, perverts this passage also. He, he says, viz., the true God — that is, the Father, not the Son — is true God. But this would be tautology. For who does not know that the true God is true God ? Wherefore the pronoun He, or This (hic), does not refer to the words true God, which preceded, but refers to the true Son of God. We may add that in S. John’s age, just as in later ages, no one doubted about the Divinity of the Father, but many doubted about, yea denied, the Godhead of the Son. It is this therefore which S. John labours to maintain. Listen to S. Athanasius on the words, All things are delivered to Me of My Father: “ This Father is Light, the Son is a beam and ray of Light, the Father is true Light and true God. The Son is true God. For so it is written by S. John, We are in Jesus Christ the True: He is the true God and eternal Life.”
Ver. 21. — Little children, keep yourselves from idols . Amen. S. John gives this last admonition, because in that age idolatry was a great danger, and it was most needful to warn against it. For at that time the whole world lay in the wicked one, i.e. in idolatry, and so Christians who were recently converted from it were obliged to be continually conversant with their Gentile and idolatrous relations and friends, to dine and feast with them, when meats offered to idols were set before them as sacred things to be eaten, concerning which I have spoken on 1 Cor. viii. Lest, therefore, by their examples and entreaties they should fall back into idolatry which they had lately forsaken, S. John in this last verse diligently warns them, so that he may fasten it deeply in their mind and their memory, that they should abstain from all commerce with idols, and from all meats offered to idols. So Didymus, Lyra, Cajetan, &c. Beza and the heretics falsely render the words, Little children, keep yourselves from images . For an image is the likeness of something true, or real: but a simulchrum or idol, of something false, as for instance of a false god. Thus Scripture and the Fathers distinguish those two words. And the Seventh Oecumenical Council pronounces an anathema against those who say that the images of Christ and the Saints are idols.
Now S. John says, Keep yourselves from idols, he does not say, Destroy idols , for this would excite the rage of the heathen against all Christians. Wherefore S. Augustine warns us that the idols in men’s hearts ought first to be destroyed, afterwards those in the temples. He adds that those must not be accounted Martyrs who are killed for destroying idols. But this must be understood of those who did it rashly and imprudently so as to cause scandal. For those who did it advisedly out of greatness of soul, or by a Divine prompting, either to confound the heathen or to confirm the faithful, are reckoned among the Martyrs. Such were S. Theodorus , S. Barbara, S. Christina, and many others.
Keep yourselves from idols. This means, Do not carve, or paint, or polish them. Do not uncover the head or bend the knee to them, or pay them any honour. Do not swear by them. Do not eat meats offered to them. Do not hold any office connected with their worship or honour. Do not bear offerings, frankincense or wine, to them. Do not celebrate their fame either in prose or verse. With the greatest circumspection, therefore, were the faithful to keep themselves from idols, and to be on their guard against them, so as not to consent to, or take part in, and so be defiled in any manner with idolatrous rites and ceremonies. Lastly, S. John in these words rebukes the heresy of Elxai, which arose towards the close of his life. Amongst other things he taught that it was no sin if any one chanced to adore idols in a time of hot persecution, if only a man did not adore them in his conscience, and if belief in them were professed only with the lips and not in the heart. And this crafty deceiver was not ashamed to cite in confirmation of his doctrine a certain priest of the name of Phinees, a descendant of Aaron and of the ancient Phinees, who in the time of the Babylonish captivity worshipped Diana, and thus at Susa escaped destruction in the presence of King Darius. So S. Epiphanius (Haeres. 19).
Several ancient writers have entertained doubts respecting the Second and Third Epistles of S. John, supposing them to have been written by John the Presbyter, not John the Apostle. They have been led to think this because the writer begins by calling himself the Elder, or the Presbyter, in Greek. This doubt is mentioned by Eusebius (H. E. lib. 3 cap. ult.) and S. Jerome (de Scrip. Eccles.). But that both these Epistles are canonical is now de fide , and also that they were written by S. John the Apostle. This appears, 1st. From the definition of the Council of Trent (sess. 4), and the Third Council of Carthage (cap. 47), and the Council of Laodicaea (cap. 59), and the 84 of the Canons of the Apostles.
2d. From the Fathers, viz. Irenaeus (lib. 3 c. 13), S. Augustine (lib. 2 de Doct. Christ, c. 8). Hear also S. Jerome (Epis. ad Paul.) : “James, Peter, John, and Jude the Apostles published seven epistles, both mystical, succinct, and brief, all about the same length : short in words, long in sentences, so that there are few readers who are unacquainted with them.” He says elsewhere (Epist. ad Evagr .), “ The son of thunder, whom Jesus loved most dearly, sounds with his trumpet ; he, I mean, who from the Saviour's breast drank rivers